
Class 

Book. 

Copyright N° 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 



WRITING ON THE 
CLOUDS 



BY 
ARTHUR NEWMAN 




BOSTON 
SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY 

1910 



N\ 



e>R?£ 



Copyright, 19 10 
Sherman, French & Company 



©CI.A268479 



FOREWORD 

Ad majorem gloricm Dei. 

"That which we have seen and heard declare 
we unto you." 

Thus the Apostle John begins a letter to his 
fellow believers and to his fellowmen, knowing 
that to a word thus attested they would give heed. 

We ourselves listen when one sincerely and out 
of a full heart tries to tell, though with stammer- 
ing speech, what great things he has found to 
help in God's word, and in the gospel of Jesus 
Christ our Lord. A. N. 



CONTENTS 

PAGT5 

I. Writing on the Clouds . . 1 

II. Luke's Foreword .... 6 

III. V. D. M 12 

IV. The Silences of Jesus ... 20 
V. The Hot Spring in the Wilderness 29 

VI. Individuality and Inspiration . 36 

VII. The Studio of the Soul . . 44 

VI 1 1. Three Epochs in the Life of a 

Young Man .... 52 

IX. The Towns Clerk's Tribute . . 58 

X. The Commonwealth Idea . . 65 

XI. Victory over Vicissitudes . . 71 

XII. The Soul's Silence unto God . 78 

XIII. The City of Three Dimensions . 83 



WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

United States Signal Service men accomplished 
a remarkable feat when from a mountain peak in 
Colorado they sent a message which was read by 
observers on a mountain summit in Utah, one 
hundred and eighty-three miles away. By means 
of a mirror sunlight was flashed upon the clouds 
in the code signals sent thus because, by reason of 
the curvature of the earth, the peaks were mutu- 
ally invisible. 

In a striking way this becames typical of much 
of our best service to our fellow men. Many 
things we do for them which we can see them re- 
ceive, enjoy and profit by. But our highest min- 
istries are as these writings on the clouds, for 
their effect we do not at the time behold. The 
religious teacher when he speaks to his hearers; 
the statesman addressing his fellow citizens; a 
teacher facing a class; the parent counselling a 
child; the pages sent forth from the printing 
press ; these are as messages on the clouds, for we 
know not whether our words are noticed, and if 
heeded, whether these are understood and will 
avail. As a rule we talk and write by faith, not 
by sight. 

The light used in the manner referred to was 
mirrored not manufactured by man. We come 

1 



2 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

to know that this also is typical. Original 
thought is very rare. We are transmitters not 
originators of ideas, plagiarists although un- 
consciously. It is interesting to trace the history 
of inventions, and see how these have been antici- 
pated, and to follow back the course of an idea or 
a phrase. We are continually repeating what 
others have said or written and which has im- 
pressed itself on our mind. Even in the highest 
realm this is true. "Let your light shine before 
men," said Jesus, but it was reflected light, not 
originating in them, for beholders would glorify 
the Father. 

It is worth our while to remember this. For 
when we have yielded to the instinctive impulse to 
speak what we think or feel; when we try to tell 
our best thought to others in the hope that they 
may be benefitted thereby ; when we oftimes won- 
der, since no response comes and no result is seen, 
whether the utterance was of service after all, 
we are helped and encouraged to recall that our 
own thought was once a writing on the clouds by 
others, who also wondered if they had accom- 
plished aught, who never knew that it was re- 
ceived; that very message really which now we 
in turn are flashing on. 

Recently the story was told of a naval officer 
on a warship who saw electric light signals on the 
clouds, and became curious to know what it 
meant. He found, to his astonishment, that a 
sailor on another ship was thus sending skyward 



WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 3 

a prayer for divine help in a dreaded ordeal, 
which was to come the next day. In the sim- 
plicity of his faith the seaman thought thus to 
attract the notice of God, and insure attention to 
his earnest desire. All unconsciously he was, in 
this way, reminding others how genuine and how 
deep is the instinct of prayer, and by the unique 
method he adopted, in the utterance of his re- 
quest to the Lord, he has brought forcibly into 
view the fact that prayer seems usually a writing 
upon clouds. 

For it is a word spoken into the great silence. 
No one seems to hear or care ; no result as we usu- 
ally feel appears to follow. If God ever hears or 
heeds that message we do not know it. We may 
think he does, we may hope he does, we may be- 
lieve he does, but we do not know. If prayer were 
only like telephoning when we know the person 
we speak to is surely listening, even though un- 
seen. Thus we all feel, and we can only fall back 
upon the great instinct of our souls. As we can- 
not but speak what is the great truth to us, 
whether others appear to heed or not, feeling sure 
that faithful witness is not in vain, so we utter 
our praises and our petitions to the Most High 
assured that the Lord must know and act. That 
mighty instinct has been implanted in the soul 
of man by his Maker, and he who is thus the In- 
spirer must be the Hearer of prayer. 

We are all wondering at times what we shall 
do in heaven. Very little has been revealed, but 



4 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

we may be sure that when our powers are then 
perfected, and when all things are open to our 
view, we shall then have slowly unfolded to us all 
that entered into the formation of that marvellous 
composition which we call our character; and we 
shall learn whence and how our opinions and be- 
liefs and knowledge came. The tracing out of 
all this in its intricacies and shadings will be an 
endless occupation of continual interest and sur- 
prise. We have a foreshadowing of it in the 
reminiscences of venerable people respecting the 
influences that shaped their youth, whether these 
recollections are in the form of disconnected con- 
versation, or the carefully written-out story of 
one's life. On the verge of eternity they do this 
instinctively and we expect it from them. 

Then too we shall not only fully know how we 
came to be what we are, but we shall be permitted 
to see clearly and in detail what we have done for 
others, not only precisely how we have influenced 
those with whom we come into personal contact, 
but how through them our influence has widened 
out and gone on through generations that fol- 
lowed. We feel down in our hearts that all this 
ought to be made known to us sometime and some- 
where and it will be heaven to see it at last in its 
fulness and detail. 

Moreover we feel that then and there we shall 
know how prayers have been answered. There 
must be a record of each of these and also the re- 
sult of each. What will it be to have access to 



WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 5 

such a record and to study out this in uttermost 
detail, finding new marvels continually of the 
glory and wisdom and power and grace of God in 
these complete and authentic disclosures of the 
secret things of Government. The saints of God 
shall shine like the stars in their glory, and as 
eternal years move on we shall come to know this 
host, which no man can number, as co-ordinated 
into a system where the relation of each to the 
other is clearly seen at last, and God shall be all 
in all. 



II 

LUKE'S FOREWORD 

The preface of a book is commonly left un- 
read, and we usually pass over the opening words 
of the Gospel written by Luke. Scholars may 
tell us that in writing it he uses classical Greek, 
and conforms to the method of Herodotus and 
Thucydides, and thus shows himself to have been 
an educated man. But we are too much interested 
in his account of Jesus to pay much heed to what 
he tells before it respecting the parentage of John 
the Baptist. 

Yet we do well to read carefully his measured 
and weighty preliminary words : 

" Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to draw 
up a narrative concerning these matters which have 
been fulfilled among us, even as they delivered them 
unto us, which from the beginning were eye wit- 
nesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to 
me also, having traced the course of all things ac- 
curately from the first, to write unto thee in order, 
most excellent Theophilus ; that thou mightest know 
the certainty of the things wherein thou was in- 
structed." 

We thus learn that even then many written 
accounts of the words and work of Jesus were cur- 
rent. These were not primarily to make him more 
widely known, doubtless, but it was felt that this 

6 



LUKE'S FOREWORD 7 

wonderful biography should not be stated in the 
unweighed words of ordinary utterance, nor con- 
fined to traditions likely to be distorted by the 
treachery of human memory. Both for the sake 
of those who had known Jesus personally, and for 
the sake of contemporaries who had never seen 
him, and much more for the sake of generations 
to come, such written records were instinctively 
deemed indispensable. From this preamble we 
infer that many of these accounts were discon- 
nected and fragmentary, much like collections of 
anecdotes. Therefore Luke says he would write 
"in order," giving an account not only accurate 
but in due sequence. 

But the great thoughts in this preface: the 
solemn and earnest purpose of the writer as he 
took pen in hand; the proof that he began, con- 
tinued and ended his work in prayer for guid- 
ance; the evidence that he was expectant of and 
conscious of special assistance from on high which 
would give his work distinct and supreme value; 
this is expressed in the very last word in the 
Greek preface to which all leads up: "the cer- 
tainty." "Accurately" he had traced all things ; 
certainties he wrote down. 

The Evangelist recognizes that the human 
mind craves certain knowledge. Peradventures, 
probably s, possibly s, we have a plenty. Opin- 
ions on all things in heaven and on earth abound, 
not only in conversation but in the schools and on 
the printed page. Human opinions are bewilder- 



8 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

ing in their mass, their variety, their vagaries, 
their contradictions. From the reading of the his- 
tory of philosophy a man is likely to rise with the 
cynical question of Pilate on his lips: "What is 
truth?" 

Luke as an educated man knew this, and there- 
fore he thus begins his book. The reader was not 
to question whether Luke was right. He was only 
to concern himself to understand what he wrote 
and to know the Christ whom he portrayed. It 
need not be said that this therefore is a unique 
preface. No ordinary man in his senses could 
write such words and make such amazing claims. 
The writer would not have said this as he began a 
treatise on medicine. Flesh and blood presented 
mysteries then as now to the ablest minds. But 
Luke does not hesitate to affirm that his following 
account of a far transcendent mystery, "the 
Word made flesh" was absolutely true. 

This preface implies that Theophilus needed 
such a book and had a right to it as a seeker after 
truth. Will we allow that Theophilus was a 
privileged person ; that he had claims on the All- 
wise and All-gracious Father more than we have ; 
that he had needs really differing from ours ? The 
very fact that this book has been saved out of the 
wreck of ages, and that it comes down to us prac- 
tically unchallenged as the Gospel Luke wrote, is 
an answer. We need such a book as much as this 
man did. Traditions are as unreliable now as 
then. Opinions of men still are tinged with error. 



LUKE'S FOREWORD 9 

If God inspired Luke to give this disciple a writ- 
ing, in the reading of which he might attain unto 
the certainties of faith, surely that same book 
ought to be saved and secured to give certainties 
to our souls as well. Therefore the preface does 
not seem absurd in its claim, but rather promis- 
ing what we feel we can rightfully expect. 

Furthermore it brings out the great distinction 
between reason and revelation. It was not for 
Theophilus by long and patient reasoning to de- 
termine what God ought to say and do, and thus 
invent a Gospel. It was for him to hear God's 
Gospel; to be told certainly what God had said 
and done in the Person of his Son, Jesus Christ. 

The earliest use of the reason of man in dealing 
with this large and decisive question we find in the 
account of the temptation in Eden. No matter 
what particular view we may take of the narra- 
tive it is thoroughly true to human experience. 
"Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every 
tree of the garden?" The true question was: 
"Did God say so?" That however was deftly put 
aside. The finite mind was invited and urged to 
consider and decide whether it was likely He said 
this. Then temptation came and error followed. 

The case is typical. If it is our desire and pur- 
pose to determine for ourselves what God prob- 
ably said and did we may expect Him to leave us 
to our own devices to find out if we can. That is 
rationalism. If it is our longing and hope to 
know what God wants us to believe and do ; if we 



10 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

use our reason humbly and sincerely to know this, 
our instinctive conception of the Heavenly Father 
makes us feel sure that He will find a way to lead 
us to the great certainties. The reason will not 
only be inspired to declare the truth to us, but 
our reason will also be inspired to discern it. The 
assurance of Jesus which Luke records must be 
true. "If ye then, being evil, know how to give 
good gifts unto your children, how much more 
shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit 
unto them that ask him?" 

Beatitudes are based upon certitudes. The Ser- 
mon on the Mount opens with announcements of 
blessings and it ends with the reference to the 
house built upon a rock, against which swirling 
winds and waters beat in vain. That firm founda- 
tion on which happiness securely stands is theirs 
who hear and do my words, Jesus said. To make 
this foundation known to men Luke wrote this 
Gospel as he tells us at the outset of his work. 
How the purpose of that preface was fulfilled, as 
he looked back on the completed record appears in 
the opening words of the Book of Acts : "The for- 
mer treatise I made, O Theophilus, concerning all 
that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until 
the day in which he was received up." Calm 
in the assurance that he could tell the truth, the 
whole truth, and nothing but the truth concern- 
ing Christ, he knew with certainty when his tes- 
timony was finished that his testimony was true. 

Referring to those other accounts of the life of 



LUKE'S FOREWORD 11 

Jesus mentioned in this preamble, an old writer 
quaintly says: "Luke had no authority to sup- 
press these other gospels ; nor doth he reprehend, 
or calumniate them; but he writes the Truth 
simply, and leaves it to outwear falsehood; and 
so it hath." A striking illustration of this is 
given by Henry M. Stanley. 

He tells of his visit to the court of Mtesa, 
King of Uganda, and of the interest shown by the 
African monarch in all that his white visitor had 
to tell him. Particularly was he interested in 
what Stanley had to state about the religion 
made known in the Scriptures. Their intercourse 
was interrupted for several months, and when re- 
sumed, Stanley took up the themes which he had 
endeavored to make clear. They felt that they 
needed a Bible, and so he set to work to translate 
the most important parts of the Scripture for 
them. But he says he gave them the Gospel of 
Luke entire. Thus this able and practical man 
selected this Book as the best possible account of 
our Lord for the instruction of an inquiring mind 
under such circumstances. And the marvelous 
triumph of Christianity in Uganda may in no 
small degree be attributed to this Gospel of the 
certainty concerning Christ. 



Ill 

V. D. M. 

In a country cemetery there is a memorial stone 
on which the name is followed by the three let- 
ters, "V. D. M." Used as we are to honorary 
titles and their abbreviations, these letters are 
unique and in most minds probably awaken sur- 
prise. The questioner would learn that they stand 
for the Latin phrase meaning "Minister of the 
Word of God." This is obviously not a college 
degree, nor is it confirmed by church authority. 
It can only mean the designation of a character. 

We feel sure that this man would have agreed 
with Professor Baldwin of Yale, who has been 
called a most successful teacher of the art of com- 
position, when he declares that he who would learn 
to write English well must study the literary art 
in the English Bible. This minister of early days 
would be in full harmony also with Professor 
Phelps of Yale, who insists that "the English 
Bible combines the noblest prose and poetry with 
the utmost simplicity of diction." And he would 
have heartily subscribed to the declaration of Pro- 
fessor Gardiner of Harvard when he says : "Much 
reading of the Bible will soon bring one to an 
understanding of the mood in which all art seems 
a juggling with trifles, and an attempt to catch 
the unessential, when the everlasting verities are 

12 



V. D. M. 13 

slipping by. The silent, unhurrying rumination 
of the East makes our modern flood of literature 
seem garrulous and chattering; even the great 
literature of the Greeks loses beside the compres- 
sion and massiveness of the Old Testament." 

Deeper chords would have been struck in his 
heart by this careful and loving tribute to the 
Scriptures by Dr. Henry Van Dyke: "How won- 
derful, how supreme is the Bible as an utterance 
of life in literature ! What range, what mastery 
of literary forms ! The thoughts breathe with in- 
spiration, the unconsumed words burn with the di- 
vine presence, the figures live and move." For 
this man found the life which is in God, and of 
God, regnant and radiant in the Book Divine. 

Those three letters give us pause, while we 
consider, not only what they stand for, but what 
they mean in this time of Bibles by the million, 
and books about the Bible by the hundreds. Bible 
study is widespread and helps thereto abound. In 
the very multiplicity of these there lurks a peril 
which may not be overlooked. 

A thoughtful and scholarly man remarked that 
the only way to appreciate, enjoy and be helped 
by a poem of value was to take time and pains to 
form a mental picture called forth by the inci- 
dents, descriptions and picturing words it con- 
tained. Those who have done this know what a 
mental delight and enrichment come thereby. 
This is the way to read the Bible. "Understand- 
est thou what thou readest," said one to a person 



14 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

busy with a sacred volume, as the Scriptures tell 
us. That had nothing to do with questions of 
criticism, high or low ; nor with theological spec- 
ulations, nor with bearings ecclesiastical. It had 
reference to the real value of Bible reading to a 
mind in humble and hearty contact with the Di- 
vine Mind as thus expressed, and flooded with 
light and filled with energy as a result. 

Few things are more touching and instructive 
in this connection than the story of the man who 
came to the room where the famous picture of 
"Christ before Pilate" was on exhibition. Gruffly 
he asked of the person at the door where Christ 
was. When she grasped his meaning and directed 
him where to go, he turned to give a cursory 
glance at the painting. He paused before it as- 
tonished; fixed an earnest gaze on the canvas. 
Soon he took off his hat. Still he remained star- 
ing spellbound at the scene portrayed, and after 
a time he came slowly and reverently out, saying 
to the custodian as he passed, that he had come 
only because his mother asked him to. "Now," 
he fervently exclaimed, "God helping me, I'll be 
a better man." That is the way in which the 
Word of God was meant to minister to us in its 
reverent reading. We must not allow any one or 
any thing to come between us and that power, 
unwasting, unvarying, inspiring, which resides in 
the Bible. 

Emerson said: "Discharge to men the priestly 
office, and, present or absent, you shall be fol- 



V. D. M. 15 

lowed with their love as by an angel." Thus we 
know this man felt whose memorial stone becomes 
so suggestive. The Word of God which had 
found entrance into his life must find utterance 
through his lips, and his conduct. What he had 
been taught he must transmit. He could not rest 
until other men looked up at his bidding to be- 
hold the vision glorious. If Moses and David and 
Isaiah and Paul and John had ministered to him, 
he must in turn minister to the men and women 
about him; a priest not by the laying on of hu- 
man hands but by the anointing from on high. 

This servant of the truth lived in the days of 
the old-fashioned pulpit, "the swallow's nest," as 
Mr. Beecher once humorously said; the narrow, 
box-like structure, reached by winding stairs and 
carefully closed with wooden doors. In sharp 
contrast to it is the pulpit of today, a simple desk 
standing on a platform as nearly as possible on a 
level with the pews. The preacher of today is a 
man among men; recognized as a factor in the 
life of his time as is indicated by the position 
which he occupies by their arrangement when he 
speaks to men. Because he has by nature unusual 
religious insight and wealth of religious ideas; 
because he has enjoyed special opportunities for 
the study of religious truths in their essential na- 
ture and true connection ; because he is sufficiently 
detached from ordinary affairs clearly and 
broadly to understand men and the times ; because 
he has the gift of effective utterance and well 



16 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

marked leadership in all that broadens, deepens 
and enriches life, his fellows accept him as to them 
a minister of the Word of God. 

This is a ministry not confined to any class set 
apart by human hands. The aged pilgrim Whit- 
tier describes was a minister of the Word of God, 
whether he had been ordained or not. And that 
ministry in its activity and efficiency is open to 
any who feels its privilege and power as the 
poet pictures it : 

" O, lady fair, I have yet a gem which a purer luster 
flings, 

Than the diamond flash of the jeweled crown on 
the lofty brow of Kings, — 

A wonderful pearl of exceeding price, whose virtue 
shall not decay, 

Whose light shall be as a spell to thee, and a bless- 
ing on the way. 



A small and meagre book from his folding robe he 

took, 
Here, lady fair, is the pearl of price ; may it prove 

as such to thee; 
Nay — keep thy gold — I ask it not, for the Word 

of God is free. 

The hoary traveler went his way, but the gift he 

left behind 
Hath had its perfect work on that high-born 

maiden's mind, 
And she hath turned from the pride of sin to the 

lowliness of truth, 
And given her human heart to God in its beautiful 

hour of youth/' 



V. D. M. 17 

Dr. John Hall of New York was called the 
Apostle of Common Sense. Why this designa- 
tion was given him is well illustrated by the re- 
mark of a man of the world, who said he always 
made it a point to hear Dr. Hall preach, when he 
happened to be in the city. And when asked the 
reason, he replied: "He always makes me feel like 
a fool if I do not agree with him." We remember 
that when this widely honored and useful minis- 
ter delivered the late Lectures on Preaching, he 
entitled them : "The ministry of the Word." The 
title summed up his idea of the preacher's work: 
to get at and give out the true meaning of the 
Bible, in plain, practical, common-sense speech. 

To do this is to be in the true Apostolic Suc- 
cession. First among the writers of the New Tes- 
tament Luke uses the phrase, when in the preface 
to the Gospel written by him, he speaks of those 
"who were eye witnesses, and ministers of the 
word." That the Apostles thus conceived of 
their work appears in their statement just before 
the choice and consecration of the deacons of the 
church: "We will give ourselves continually to 
prayer and the ministry of the word." That was 
service for the Princes of the church ; demanding 
unremitting and strenuous activity of mind and 
soul from men inspired. The great sermon of 
Peter on the Day of Pentecost shows what this 
means, abounding as it does in quotations from 
the Holy Scripture; explanations and applica- 
tions of these, and in allusions to facts about 



18 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

Jesus, which Luke for instance, afterward wrote 
down that men of the day who never saw Peter, 
and men of all time might have a sure word of 
truth. 

Such a ministry of the word is in one sense 
simple. In another it puts the heaviest possible 
demand upon every faculty of the most gifted 
intellect. As the small filament of metal glows 
when a powerful current of electricity is crowd- 
ing the narrow channel in its swift passage so the 
brain of man is put to its greatest test when it re- 
ceives and transmits the thoughts of the Infinite 
Mind. Dr. Jowett of Birmingham has given his 
personal testimony to this effect in a recent ad- 
dress before an English Church Council, when he 
said : 

" When I turn to apostolic witness and preaching, 
I am growingly amazed at the fulness and glory of 
the messages. There is a range about it, and a vast- 
ness, and a radiance, and a colour which have been 
the growing astonishment of my latter years. 
When I turn to it, I feel as though I am in an Al- 
pine country, majestic heights with tracts of virgin 
snow; suggestions of untraversed depths with most 
significant silence, mighty rivers full and brimming 
all the year round, fields of exquisite flowers 
nestling beneath the protecting care of precipitous 
grandeur, fruit trees on the lower slopes, each tree 
bearing its fruit in its season, songs of birds, mov- 
ing air, awful tempest." 

It is this "note of vastitude, this ever-present 
sense and suggestion of the infinite" which the 
speaker emphasized as characteristic of the true 



V. D. M. 19 

preaching in every age, finding themes of endless 
variety, depth, energy, breadth, compassion and 
uplift in the Bible. 



IV 
THE SILENCES OF JESUS 

What men say, and their voluntary silence as 
well, when they are entering the valley of the 
shadow of death have ever been noted with pe- 
culiar care and interest. This is specially true 
when we study not only what Jesus said and did, 
but what he refrained from saying and doing as 
he was under the shadow of the cross. 

His significant silences on that last day of life, 
at critical moments, the Gospels faithfully note 
and thus duly emphasize. 

Among the great experiences of life is a view 
from some lofty place of a broad and varied land- 
scape spread before the eyes in all its charm of 
forest and field, hill and river, scattered home- 
steads and clustered houses, all brightly illumined 
by the sunlight. Sometimes the foot may dis- 
lodge a stone which, bounding to the edge of the 
cliff, disappears, and after an interval a dull 
crash is heard, telling of its final fall to the val- 
ley below, and with a thrill one realizes the depths 
close at our hand, into which a plunge would be 
so easy and so destructive. 

We read that Jesus was crucified between two 
robbers, and the heart rejoices at the wondrous 
assurance he gave to one of them, writhing in the 
agonies of a cruel death, of Paradise close at 

20 



THE SILENCES OF JESUS 21 

hand, unto which he should go with Jesus that 
very day. But what of that other wicked man? 
That omission is marked. To him Jesus never 
spoke a recorded word. We feel sure he never 
could have said a word to him, for the failure to 
record it if uttered would be inexplicable on any 
theory of inspiration. God would never have left 
men to anxious misgivings if there had been any- 
thing to tell them of assurance respecting this 
man. Our rejoicing over that penitent man, to 
whom came a great hope in his last hours is asso- 
ciated with a thrill of awe and fear, as we think 
of a wretched, impenitent soul, going into eter- 
nity, stained with crime, dying by the very side 
of the Savior of men, but to whom not one syl- 
lable was spoken by the Lord Jesus. 

The perplexed and politic Roman governor, 
before whom Jesus was arraigned, seized the op- 
portunity offered, when he heard that the pris- 
oner was a Galilean, to send him for trial by 
Herod the Tetrarch, who was then in Jerusalem. 
Thus Pilate would get rid of a difficult case, and 
pay a compliment to the Jewish Prince with 
whom he had been at variance. Our interest is 
roused as we consider that meeting between Jesus 
and the man whose hands were stained with the 
blood of John the Baptist, and who had threat- 
ened to kill Jesus himself if he could get him in 
his power. As stern John Knox spoke out in 
faithful rebuke and upbraiding at the gay and 
worldly court of Queen Mary ; as Paul "reasoned 



22 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

of righteousness, and temperance and the judg- 
ment to come before profligate Felix ; as Nathan 
the prophet denounced his sin to David the king ; 
so should we expect Jesus to speak in burning 
words to this man and his courtiers on an occa- 
sion like this. But the Savior maintained abso- 
lute silence. Herod was in the presence of Christ 
but he never heard his voice. 

Those awful silences of Jesus are to be sharply 
noted and taken account of when we make up our 
creed. For however men may criticize the creeds 
in Christendom, and the making of creeds at all, 
each person has some sort of a creed, even if it 
consist mainly in the denial of accepting any 
creed. Our eyes are fixed upon the penitent rob- 
ber and the Paradise to which he was going. 
What of the other man? What of another atro- 
cious sinner whom Christ met that very morning 
and to whom he would not speak ? These are facts 
which we must face, and fit into our creed; with 
their appalling reminder of the depth of possible 
human depravity ; what impenitence and hardness 
of heart may become ; and with which there is not 
a faint suggestion that Jesus tried to deal. 

"Remember Lot's wife" the Master once said, 
and He referred to the woman who turned away 
to destruction from the very side of rescuing 
angels of mercy. Jesus recalled that to remind 
men that others might do likewise, and harden 
themselves beyond the possibility of salvation. 
It means this or it means nothing. The Teacher 



THE SILENCES OF JESUS 23 

come from God surely was no rhetorical trifler or 
religious enthusiast whose words wandered from 
facts. 

When Jesus was arraigned before the Jewish 
Supreme Court the forms of legal procedure were 
observed. A formal charge was made against the 
prisoner and corroborative evidence was sought. 
None was forthcoming that would stand the test. 
The judges were in a quandary. The condemna- 
tion of the accused man had been determined upon 
yet they would have the decision based on proper 
evidence. Finally they demanded of Jesus what 
he had to say in his own defence. The prisoner 
maintained silence. He knew as well as his 
judges that there was no case against him, and 
therefore no defence was necessary. We marvel 
at his perfect poise under such circumstances. 
Where any one would have spoken eagerly and 
riddled the charges with burning and scathing 
words Jesus said nothing. We remember, as they 
ought to have remembered, that mark of the Mes- 
siah as Isaiah says: "He was oppressed and he 
was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth." His 
silence was a fulfillment of prophecy. 

The Court was infuriated at his calm demeanor, 
and finally the High Priest put the prisoner on 
the witness stand. He administered the oath and 
put the question in the solemn words: "I adjure 
thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether 
thou be the Christ, the Son of the living God." 
Almost any man would have spoken when it was 



24 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

plain that the case against him had broken down 
and demanded honorable and instant acquittal. 
Any man would have been paralyzed with horror 
and amazement when confronted with such a mon- 
strous imputation on his sanity as the High 
Priest's word conveyed. But Jesus instantly 
broke silence with the calm words: "I am." 
Breathlessly the crowded court had watched him 
and awaited his answer, and for an instant the 
room was quiet as men heard that reply. They 
knew and Jesus knew exactly what the question 
meant and what the answer meant. They had 
charged him with making himself equal with God. 
Now in open court he was publicly asked if that 
charge were true and men heard him, in the most 
solemn, most explicit, and most emphatic way de- 
clare that he claimed that dignity and glory. 
And while the court room was still he went on to 
mention a prophecy of Daniel which they ac- 
cepted as referring to the Messiah, and told them 
of the day at hand when they should see "the Son 
of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and 
coming in the clouds of heaven." That prophecy 
he applied to himself. 

Recovering themselves from the awe his words 
caused, the court unanimously condemned the 
audacious blasphemer, and hurried him to the Ro- 
man Governor for condemnation and punishment. 
Pilate at first proposed to leave the matter to the 
Jews, but when he learned that it was a case de- 
manding capital punishment he took it up. His 



THE SILENCES OF JESUS 25 

first question of the prisoner was whether he was 
the King of the Jews, but the Roman judge was 
disconcerted when the prisoner proceeded to cross- 
examine him. Jesus demanded whether Pilate 
asked this from what he himself knew of him, or 
whether someone else had said so. At the very 
start Jesus was fixing Pilate's personal responsi- 
bility, and so when the Governor hastily dis- 
claimed any personal knowledge in the matter, 
Jesus calmly went on to state wherein his avowed 
kingship consisted. But Pilate brusquely indi- 
cated that he knew and cared little about the truth 
Jesus referred to as the basis and bond of that 
kingdom. 

Then he went out and told the Jews that he 
found no cause to punish the prisoner, but in- 
stantly they broke out in furious denunciations of 
Jesus, and when the storm had spent itself a lit- 
tle, to the astonishment of the experienced judge 
Jesus made no reply to it nor did he speak a word 
even when Pilate asked him to make what defence 
he pleased. The perplexed Governor now tried to 
shift the matter to Herod's decision, and when 
nothing came of that he proposed to scourge 
Jesus and let him go. The Jews protested at once 
and demanded that he be crucified. And when 
Pilate asked on what they based that demand, they 
answered: "We have a law, and by our law he 
ought to die, because he made himself the Son 
of God." 

Pilate, the hardened man of the world, cynical 



26 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

and sceptical, was startled as he heard that. Re- 
entering the judgment hall, he gazed fixedly at 
the prisoner and exclaimed: "Whence art thou?" 
And Jesus answered not a word. Again we mark 
that significant silence. As he had refused to an- 
swer the priest's charges, he now refused to an- 
swer the Procurator's question. And Pilate 
roused by the refusal said: "Speakest thou not to 
me? Knowest thou not that I have power to cru- 
cify thee, and power to release thee?" All about 
them were the evidences indeed of Roman power; 
its symbols in the tribunal, its servants in the 
mail-clad soldiers who represented the legions 
that held the world in subjection. Power was the 
pride and the passion of that masterful race to 
which Pilate belonged. 

Then Jesus spoke. He met that challenge of 
Imperial Rome, whose Emperor was as a god, 
with the words : "Thou couldest have no power at 
all against me except it were given thee from 
above." This prisoner dared to say that Pilate 
was powerless in the presence of forces by which 
he himself was protected and which he controlled. 

The silence of Jesus before the priests is the 
setting of his declaration that he is the Son of 
God, with that added reference to prophecy which 
came to them with peculiar force. They under- 
stood him to say that he was the Christ, the Son 
of God, and he meant them so to understand. 
The silence of Jesus before Pilate is the setting of 
the announcement of the dignity of the Son of 



THE SILENCES OF JESUS 27 

God, made with a reference to His power, which, 
on the other hand, was of peculiar meaning to his 
heathen judge. It is impossible for us to conceive 
how the Deity of Jesus Christ could have been 
more clearly and more conclusively stated by him, 
or under circumstances of more solemnity, and 
forms of more significance. There is but one fair 
interpretation, apparently, to put on his words. 
Men speak of the divinity of Jesus, but say that 
also with a certain plausibility and fitness of 
Plato, Socrates, Confucius, Buddha, Shakespeare. 
We mean thus to say that these eminent men for 
instance, have large wisdom, insight, force, eleva- 
tion and breadth of character, in which there is, 
to some degree, a manifestation of divine excel- 
lence. Yet no one ever spoke intelligently of the 
deity of these persons, or of any man. But Deity 
Jesus Christ apparently referred to, and claimed 
for himself, under those circumstances mentioned ; 
actual and absolute worship he accepted as his 
due ; the throne of eternal dominion he was to ac- 
cept and occupy, sovereign undisputed. 

One of the memorable addresses at the meeting 
of the Church Federation in New York City sev- 
eral years ago was given by Dr. Charles Cuthbert 
Hall. At the outset in chosen words, slowly and 
carefully uttered, he explicitly stated his belief 
in Jesus as the Son of God, Very God of very 
God. Every one knew that he made Christ in- 
deed equal with God. He went on to say that it 
might be permissible, however, to compare Jesus 



28 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

with other moral and religious teachers among 
men, and as it were, allow him to be numbered 
with them as he himself had done in recently pre- 
senting Christianity to the Oriental mind. For 
it was his profound conviction that all thoughtful 
and sincere seekers after the truth would in due 
time see qualities in this Jesus that made him su- 
preme, unapproachable, that there was logically 
and spiritually no final pause for one who fairly 
weighed the words and deeds of Jesus Christ 
until he was found prostrate at the feet of the 
Savior, reverently saying, "My Lord and My 
God." 



V 

THE HOT SPRINGS IN THE 
WILDERNESS 

Perhaps the most ancient folk song of litera- 
ture is found in the Bible. It was doubtless sung 
by the Hebrews at the well that gushed forth in 
the wilderness of their pilgrimage, and in all like- 
lihood was chanted for centuries afterwards by 
their maidens as they gathered by their village 
wells with their water jars. Then sang Israel 
this song: 

" Spring up, O well ; sing, ye unto it ; 
The well which the princes digged, 
Which the nobles of the people delved, 
With the sceptre, and with their staves." 

Samuel Longfellow has transformed this into 
the final words of the hymn he wrote to the praise 
of the Holy Spirit: 

" Holy Spirit, Joy Divine, 
Gladden thou this heart of mine; 
In the desert ways I sing, 
Spring, O Well, forever spring." 

But long before the event commemorated by 
this historic song of Israel, we find the Bible tell- 
ing the story of Anah, whose daughter Esau 
married. While he was in charge of the asses of 
Zibeon his father, he found in the wilderness hot 

29 



30 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

springs, of which the fame spread far and wide, 
ensuring to him enduring remembrance as their 
discoverer. 

Lasha, a place mentioned in the Book of Gene- 
sis, and meaning "fissure" is perhaps a prose des- 
ignation of this remarkable spot. In the Book 
of Joshua we find a town named Zareth-Shehar, 
meaning "splendor of the dawn," which probably 
is a poetic name for this locality. And it can be 
none other than the Callirhoe of which Josephus 
speaks, and which Pliny describes, famous as a 
resort for invalids, like similar hot springs else- 
where now whose curative power in certain diseases 
is recognized. 

Goethe closes the story of Wilhelm Meister's 
Apprenticeship, in which he traces with master 
hand the stages in culture and development of 
character through which the young man passed, 
with the significant words, "Thus Saul, the son of 
Kish, seeking his father's asses, found a king- 
dom." 

The less familiar, but more ancient story of 
Anah yields the same lesson. The Canaanite 
youth, diligent in the doing of duty, faithful to 
the charge committed to him by his father, found 
the marvellous springs which gave him reputa- 
tion, and a mention in the imperishable record of 
the Book of Books. It is as fresh and vivid illus- 
tration of the reward that comes to him who does 
his task, however humble, with fidelity and single- 
ness of heart. 



THE HOT SPRINGS 31 

The account of that fountain about which 
Israel clustered and chanted the song quoted fol- 
lows right after the record of the people's sin, 
and their deliverance by gazing in faith upon 
the brazen serpent uplifted by divine command 
among them. Jesus has forever made this mem- 
orable and instructive, as he applies it to illus- 
trate his own work as Savior of men and which 
we too must receive and appropriate by faith 
alone. We are familiar with the Bible references 
to the water of life. Here it speaks of the waters 
of health. How the mention of the hot springs 
in the wilderness, found by Anah, would become 
luminous, were a Paul, with his marvellous in- 
sight into Scripture, to take it as an illustration 
of his words: "Ye are washed, ye are sanctified, 
ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and in the spirit of our God." What 
might this incident yield if a John, who saw so 
clearly the symbolisms of the Bible, used it, to 
make plain his meaning when he wrote: "The 
blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from 
all sin." For as Jesus recalls that the serpent 
bitten were instantly cured after the look of faith 
in obedience to the Divine command, and bids us 
infer that by looking to Himself in simple faith, 
salvation comes to our sin-diseased nature; so 
Paul and John plainly teach the cleansing and 
curative power of the blood of the Atonement 
upon him who simply believes. 

"How can these things be?" exclaimed that 



32 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

astonished thinker, Nicodemus, when the Master 
spoke to him of that change in man which we call 
regeneration. The whole world echoes the ques- 
tion. But it was not answered then, and it has 
not been answered since. God has guarded well 
the secret of the birth of man, and the new birth 
of a human soul as well. For centuries keen and 
equipped minds have assailed the problem, but 
they can no more answer it fully and finally than 
the least inquiring of believers. The wise men of 
the world who study to know the beginnings of 
life are like the man, of whom Jesus speaks, 
who cast the seed into the ground. The seed 
sprung and grew up, "he knew not how." 

Men take up this calm, clear, unhesitating, un- 
compromising statement of the disciple who was 
close to the Master at the cross: "The blood of 
Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin." 
Instantly the question arises, "How can this thing 
be?" Many answers to the question have been 
given, and this very fact serves to show that the 
Bible itself affords no clear answer. "It is im- 
possible that the blood of bulls and goats should 
take away sins," says the writer of the Epistle to 
the Hebrews. Thus all thoughtful men must ever 
have felt. But he at once goes on to say that "we 
have been sanctified through the offering of the 
body of Jesus once for all." This is incompre- 
hensible likewise to the mind of man. The vicari- 
ous sacrifice of Jesus Christ seems to be a plain 
Scripture doctrine, but no one understands it. 



THE HOT SPRINGS 33 

The most elaborate explanations leave a mystery- 
unsolved. We must fall back on the belief that 
it is God's method of full and final atonement, 
just as Abraham and David did when they of- 
fered sacrifice as they were commanded. How 
it availed they did not know. They simply did 
as they were told and left the rest to God. 

In the life of Mrs. Palmer there is mention 
made of a remarkable address delivered by Mr. 
Durant before the students and faculty of Wel- 
lesley College, of which she was at the time one of 
the professors. The old lawyer was an earnest 
Christian, and he was devoted to the interests of 
the young women, who came for an education to 
the college he had founded, and Mrs. Palmer has 
recorded the overpowering and thrilling effect of 
his argument and appeal. His text was: "The 
blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from 
all sin." That was central in the Gospel to this 
man of acute and trained legal mind. 

The personal testimony of a famous lawyer, 
one of the master minds of America, may be re- 
called, and in view of certain current speculations 
respecting miracles as attesting the Messiahship, 
his words have special significance. Daniel Web- 
ster said : "I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of 
God. The miracles which he wrought establish, 
in my mind, his personal authority, and render 
it proper for me to believe whatever he asserts ; I 
believe, therefore, all his declarations, as well 
when he declares himself to be the Son of God, as 



34 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

when he declares any other proposition. And I 
believe there is no other way of salvation than 
through the merits of his atonement." 

And precisely on what that atonement was 
based and what it was, is plain in his repeated 
and emphatic quotation, in his last hours, of Dr. 
Watts' familiar words: 

" No blood of beasts, nor heifers slain, 
For sin could e'er atone; 
The blood of Christ must still remain, 
Sufficient and alone/' 

Josephus tells us that Herod, the aged and 
blood-stained king, suffering from many and 
agonizing ailments, came in his last days to Cal- 
lirhoe, hoping that the baths in the hot springs 
would give him relief. The remedial value of these 
was recognized in that time, as the people of to- 
day resort to the famous hot springs near Ti- 
berias by the Lake of Galilee to avail themselves 
of their attested curative powers. Long before 
that Herod had marked also the beauty and mili- 
tary strength of the place, and on a lofty rock he 
had built a citadel of great strength and a palace 
of much magnificence, while around it had grown 
a city of considerable size and many attractions. 

Herod the Tetrarch afterward ruled this re- 
gion, and while in residence at the Palace, as Jo- 
sephus records, he came into contact with his 
prisoner John the Baptist. Into the dungeon of 
the citadel the faithful witness bearer was thrust 



THE HOT SPRINGS 35 

to gratify the hatred of a wicked woman; and 
while the neighboring palace was the scene of 
royal feasting and revelry at the celebration by 
the Court of Herod's birthday, in that darksome 
cell this brave man died by the executioner's 
sword. 

John had come preaching in the wilderness the 
remission of sins through the baptism of repent- 
ance, and the consequent cleansing and renewal 
of the life. Close by the hot springs in the wil- 
derness, to which men were wont to come for cure 
of their bodily ills ; which had been pouring forth 
their healing waters for centuries ; and which to- 
day continue in unchanged and undiminished flow, 
rest and reward fittingly came to that great ser- 
vant of the Lord, whose ministry found its true 
close when he had pointed men to "the Lamb of 
God which taketh away the sin of the world." 



VI 
INDIVIDUALITY AND INSPIRATION 

Church Councils of our own time are not of 
much interest unless matters of broad and gen- 
eral concern come up for discussion and decision, 
and such assemblies of an earlier day are import- 
ant commonly to historians only. Yet the first 
Christian Council becomes of instant interest when 
the attention is directed to the remarkable way 
in which its decision of the question in hand is 
worded. "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and 
us" the record reads. 

Unmistakably then, the Holy Spirit is a Per- 
son according to the view of those early Chris- 
tians. They had been with Jesus, heard his ref- 
erences to the coming of the Holy Spirit, and 
knew fully about the event that makes Pentecost 
forever memorable. This is their way of refer- 
ring to Him as really present at that council as 
much as Peter or any one recorded on the list of 
members. A course of action may seem good to 
a person, but not to an influence. That mode of 
expression would be as absurd as to say that the 
fall of a stone seems good to gravitation, or the 
turning of a windmill seems, good to the air. 

They say at the outset of this decree that it 
seemed good to the members of the council to send 
certain persons to the Church at Antioch. That 



INDIVIDUALITY AND INSPIRATION 37 

of course we understand. Then they go on to say 
that the doctrinal decision they made seems good 
to the Holy Spirit and to the persons present at 
that time. However we may find a difficulty in 
understanding the subject, this seems unquestion- 
able that the Holy Spirit was considered as an 
intelligent, individual personality. 

Moreover, they meant to recognize the Deity 
of the Holy Spirit. To them He was the Head 
of the Church. They do not say this decree was 
approved by the Father, nor do they affirm that 
it was approved by the Lord Jesus. The Person 
whose approval or disapproval was matter of su- 
preme concern was the Holy Spirit, because the 
Master had distinctly announced his coming into 
the world, proceeding from the Father and the 
Son, the authoritative teacher and guide of men. 
There might be a blasphemy against the Spirit 
of God, Christ said, and it was a sin beyond par- 
don. This Person then was to be regarded with 
reverence; his office was to be honored, and unto 
Him they were to pay the worship and devotion 
which God alone could claim. 

That seems to be a statement of the doctrine of 
the Holy Spirit which this decree involves. 

Jesus had said : "When the Comforter is come, 
whom I will send unto you from the Father, even 
the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the 
Father, he shall testify of me ; and ye also shall 
bear witness, because ye have been with me from 
the beginning." The men that heard that, as well 



$8 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

as we who read it, understood the Master to say 
that the Holy Spirit would bear witness, and they 
also should bear witness. Now this decree in har- 
mony with that declaration meant that what the 
Holy Spirit might think and determine was one 
thing, and what they might think and determine 
was another. The Spirit and the Council might 
not agree. The point is that they did agree. 
They were not only in accord with one another, 
but they were in accord with Him. This and 
this alone gave authority to their decree. 

Instantly then this whole subject becomes of 
pressing importance to all of us. For obviously 
the matter of prime importance is for a man to be 
able to say: "It seems good to the Holy Spirit 
and me." That is not blasphemy. It is not fana- 
ticism nor pretence. It is the privilege of God's 
child and servant, and it really is all that gives 
authority of utterance. Of course this may be 
abused, and it has been grossly. That, however, 
is no reason why we should question or deny a 
privilege so glorious. We may turn impatiently 
from the doctrine of a Pope who speaking in the 
seat of authority surrounded by prelates is deemed 
infallible. We may regard with scorn the devo- 
tees of a Dowie or Mother Eddy. But the great 
truth which stands out here in its sublime import 
we may not turn from. The possibility of realiz- 
ing it ourselves we ought reverently to contem- 
plate and covet. 

There is more involved. The neglect of this 



INDIVIDUALITY AND INSPIRATION 39 

is disbelief in its highest form, and disability in 
its most disastrous manifestation. Jesus points 
this out clearly in his references to the ministry 
of the Spirit of Truth. If dishonor is done to the 
Father when we do not receive and obey his Son, 
equal dishonor is done not only to the Father but 
to the Son if we fail to receive and obey the Spirit 
who has come in the stead of Jesus. Therefore 
we must earnestly and painstakingly inquire what 
this means, and how in the council chamber of our 
own mind we may take action under such auspices 
as these early Christians. 

In the first place it was all so natural. After 
considerable discussion of the subject, James, who 
apparently was president, rose and quietly stated 
the opinion he had reached. He had done this 
after calm and careful consideration of all the 
facts in the case, and he summed the matter up 
as a judge might do. He did this without any 
special manifestation of the import of it all, and 
yet that opinion was afterward stated in the for- 
mal decree as in accord with the mind of the 
Spirit. He went into no trance ; he attracted no 
attention in any way; he was apparently utterly 
unconscious of superintendence and guidance by 
a Higher Power, yet that guidance he and all the 
rest present afterward explicitly avowed. So far 
as any one can see it was all as simple as our act 
at any time, when we make up our mind and state 
our conclusion. 

It means then that in the ordinary operation of 



40 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

our minds, our finite and fallible intelligence may 
be in perfect accord with the infinite and infallible 
Spirit of God. That is unmistakable if this rec- 
ord means anything at all. The age of miracles, 
is past, we are told. But this is not a miracle. It 
is only a fulfilling of the distinct promise of 
Christ that "the Spirit shall lead you into all 
truth." How the Spirit does this he did not tell 
us. But since we know hardly anything as to 
the way in which the mind acts, and cannot con- 
ceive what the mind is anyhow, we need not delay 
with that question. The important matter is, if 
this great guidance is possible how is it to be en- 
joyed. 

We notice that this particular council was not 
opened with prayer, as among us is the rule 
with conferences, assemblies, convocations of a 
religious character. Those men would have 
deemed an opening prayer to be as unnecessary as 
to unitedly stand up and breathe. They habitu- 
ally lived in an atmosphere of prayer. This was 
not an unusual, occasional, or strenuous exercise 
with them. It was as natural as to breathe. The 
indwelling of the Spirit was then nothing strange 
to men of that type. They lived continually in 
the sense of the divine presence. Prayer was as 
natural as conversation with each other, and at 
the family hearthside. If the Spirit with diffi- 
culty guides us it is because we make uncommon 
work of prayer. 

Then this council had no docket ; no need of a 



INDIVIDUALITY AND INSPIRATION 41 

call to order by a presiding officer. Each man 
knew the business in hand, and upon it he fixed his 
undivided attention. There was no personality 
in debate; no pride of opinion; no personal pre- 
judice and rivalry; no ambition for leadership. 
Each man was sincerely and humbly anxious to 
know the truth about the subject in hand, and to 
decide it aright. No wonder then that at the end 
they could say: "this seems good to the Holy 
Spirit and us." They fully retained their own 
individuality, and personality in their accord with 
one another and with Him. 

We live in a day when the individual demands 
the right to entertain, and to express his personal 
opinion ; to say emphatically : "this seems good to 
me." The modern world is, obviously intolerant 
of the divine right of kings or priests authorita- 
tively to declare. That Hon statue in front of the 
Parliament House in London means much in these 
days, when the people of England demand gov- 
ernment by those alone whom they choose to rep- 
resent them. The German nation is beginning to 
make the same demand, and even Russia is fol- 
lowing in the same pathway. The right and duty 
of individual judgment is the very corner stone 
of most advanced modern civilization, and this is 
all that concerns the man himself. At the vaga- 
ries, the rashness, the unsteadiness, the passions 
of popular sovereignty we are oftimes aghast. 
We do not wonder that those are found who deny 
that government can safely be entrusted to such 



42 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

immature and unsteady hands. The condition 
has come to stay, however, and the great leaders 
of the world are those who recognize and strive to 
guide this mighty movement. 

That statue in the city of Paris representing a 
lion guarding the urn, in which ballots are cast, 
has a definite meaning as to the need of accurate 
registry of the people's will thus expressed. But 
not only must the ballot box be guarded. Those 
who come to it must be guided. In its ultimate 
analysis the voice of the people must be the voice 
of God, if the voice of the people is to speak 
wisdom and truth. In that view of the matter 
this language of those ancient Christians has its 
profound meaning for all time. The authority of 
the Holy Spirit must be recognized and obeyed; 
His guidance must be asked ; reverent dependence 
on Him must be manifested if popular govern- 
ment is to be a success. 

At a great popular meeting in New York City, 
held in Cooper Institute, the need of Sabbath ob- 
servance was presented. One of the speakers al- 
luded to Sabbath sanctity as due to the will of 
God, whereupon scores of Anarchists and Social- 
ists rose, and shouted disapproval. They would 
tolerate no mention of God whatever, denying 
Him and His rule. It was blood curdling to hear 
those hoarse shouts from human lips. Practically 
however, multitudes who would not join these per- 
sons, repudiate His authority and guidance ; deem 
it entirely unnecessary to seek His guidance in 



INDIVIDUALITY AND INSPIRATION 4S 

their affairs; see no connection between a Bible 
and a ballot; feel not the priceless privilege of 
prayer ; and stare in amazement at any who quote 
the words of these early Christians uttered in this 
instance as having any earthly significance now. 

There is pressing need then for us to consider 
precisely what this means ; exactly what it im- 
plies ; seek to realize the same coincidence in our 
own judgments with His, humbly co-operating 
with the Holy Spirit in His broad work of teach- 
ing, transforming, ennobling men that the mind 
of the Spirit may be the mind of us all. For as 
the compass needle oscillates till it finally yields to 
the mighty and unseen magnetic current which 
girdles the globe, so the mind of man swings to 
and fro uncertainly in its opinions, till it yields 
to the control of the invisible spirit of truth, and 
comes to rest in a final rectitude of judgment, 
which finds a sublime and simple statement in the 
words, "it seemeth good to the Holy Spirit and 



VII 

THE STUDIO OF THE SOUL 

A psychologist must have somewhat of a poet's 
gift, if his mental philosophy is not to be micro- 
scopic and mechanical, and his enumeration and 
co-ordinating of the intellectual faculties is to be 
more than a mere cataloguing. David, the sweet 
Psalmist of Israel, was a poet whose reputation 
is established, and his knowledge of the heart and 
mind, though perhaps not scientific in our view, 
was both deep and real. An illustration of this 
occurs in the remarkable language he used at 
the end of life, when on the presence of a great 
assemblage, he offered a prayer in which the 
deepest desires of his soul found expression. "O 
Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, our fa- 
thers, keep this forever in the imagination of the 
thoughts of the hearts of thy people, and estab- 
lish their hearts unto thee." By the heart he 
meant the mind; by the thoughts he meant the 
ideas in the mind, and by the imagination he un- 
derstood the form or shape assumed by these 
vague and undefined thoughts, when combined 
into definite opinions. For the word he used 
means the fashioning, shaping of substance, such 
as may be done by the sculptor in his studio, 
when the finished statue appears bodying forth 
his thought. 

44 



THE STUDIO OF THE SOUL 45 

David understood well that thoughts are of 
very little value or significance until these have 
taken shape and form. What vaguely flits or 
floats through the mind is of little import to us or 
to others. Therefore what is done in the studio 
of the soul becomes the matter of real importance. 

This appeared in the personal counsel the 
King had given to Solomon, his son and succes- 
sor, whose brilliant and powerful intellect the 
aged King had delighted to observe in its wide 
activities and development. The marvellous men- 
tal powers of the father his son had inherited, 
with additional gifts of distinction. The paral- 
lel to the two, perhaps, may be sought in vain in 
family history. Solemnly David turned toward 
the Prince in the presence of all the nobles and 
great men of the realm and said: "And thou, 
Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy 
father, and serve him with a perfect heart and 
with a willing mind; for the Lord searcheth all 
hearts, and understandeth the imagination of the 
thoughts." 

David's hopes were bound up in the success of 
Solomon's reign. To his hands a mighty sceptre 
came; and the glory of the royal house was en- 
trusted to him. All David's experience and learn- 
ing ; all his great personal powers to inspire and 
broaden the mind; all the educative influences at 
the command of a mighty monarch were utilized 
to train and equip this splendid intellect, whose 
depth and range and accuracy observant ones 



46 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

noted even then with astonishment. All depended, 
as the King knew and averred, upon the shape 
Solomon's thoughts took. 

This shaping was not like the making of a 
molten image when the fluid mass of metal was 
run into a mold. Neither was this to be a chis- 
elling into shape as the skilful sculptor deals with 
wood and stone which comes under his hand. But 
rather as the human body assumes its normal 
form; each part taking its due place freely and 
naturally in the developed organism so the 
thoughts were to take their due form. That each 
faculty of the young Prince might be thus de- 
veloped and co-ordinated was the father's aim 
and study. 

This could not come through any outward con- 
straint. It must be an inward growth. That 
was the real problem of education as David's lan- 
guage shows ; then as now to every parent and 
teacher. It involved a certain indifference to 
those varying moods and ideas of a young mind, 
with a supreme concern only about the way in 
which these become fixed. Emphasis upon the 
unessential frets, even infuriates a youth sub- 
jected to it, while he may insensibly yield to the 
wise teacher who quietly keeps what is all im- 
portant in view. The check rein frets, while the 
guiding rein gently used is not resented. 

God's relation to this mental development 
David emphasizes. The King would not live to 
see the final form in which Solomon's thoughts 



THE STUDIO OF THE SOUL 47 

would be fixed, but the Lord would surely know. 
Through the mind of this man the Spirit of the 
Lord would freely go, observant of all its work- 
ings, and beholding its final conclusions. What 
others might guess at; what Solomon himself 
might hardly be aware of, the Lord would fully 
and accurately know. That the wise father im- 
pressed on his son ; and that absolute and unerr- 
ing Divine judgment he bids him anticipate with- 
out fear, because his thoughts had been ordered 
aright. 

The possibility of aberrations in such a wide 
intelligence as Solomon's David must have fore- 
seen, and against it his warning was given with 
utmost impressiveness. The after events show 
how that caution was needed. Brought up with 
clear and decided views of religious truth, that 
eager and eclectic intellect coming into contact 
with the thoughts and theories of men, other 
philosophies, other forms of worship insensibly 
broadened to include things incongruous, and be- 
come even sympathetic with what he once would 
have abhorred. He became tolerant toward fea- 
tures and forms of idolatry which his father had 
abominated with all his soul, and against which he 
earnestly sought to fortify his son. Liberal cul- 
ture led Solomon to a liberal theology. He be- 
came in a sense a man of the world; a mighty 
prince and a broad-minded thinker at whose splen- 
did and intellectual court philosophers of all 
schools found welcome. His mind became a Pan- 



48 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

theon: a very Parliament of religions. And Je- 
hovah found false images in Solomon's mind on 
pedestals alongside of that simple monument of 
devotion, in which the glory of Israel's God had 
once found representation peerless and alone, as 
it ever did in the heart of David the King. That 
splendid intellect had been allowed not only to 
perceive, but to receive, harbor, and fashion 
thoughts, erring and false, into forms that were 
allowed to abide, and fatally pervert, divide and 
degrade Solomon's soul. 

This great king took all culture as his province 
and his realm. The Bible lays stress on the 
breadth of his intellectual sympathies and activi- 
ties. The perils of free and wide ranging 
thought could not possibly be more emphasized 
than in the story of his errors. Liberalism led 
him astray and left him with many false gods en- 
throned in his soul. His father's words must have 
come home to him often : "And thou, Solomon my 
son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve 
him with a perfect heart and a willing mind; for 
the Lord searcheth all hearts and understandeth 
all the imaginations of the thoughts." That di- 
vine inspection we must welcome and be ready for, 
and the divine judgment of the work of our minds 
must ever be awaited and accepted as final. The 
imaginations of our thoughts we must fling aside 
as faulty and vain, however perfect these may 
seem to us or our associates ; if not in accordance 
with the infallible standards of truth by which 
God judges. 



THE STUDIO OF THE SOUL 49 

What the father said to his son, the King said 
afterwards in a great assembly of his people in 
that prayer which has been quoted. David as a 
monarch could think of men in the mass, as well 
as of individuals. He well knew that national 
well-being depended on the forms which the popu- 
lar thought assumed. This absolute king was 
aware that public opinion was in the end supreme 
and determinative. At the outset of his public 
life it had been his aim to inspire his defeated, di- 
vided, demoralized fellow countrymen with great 
national ideals and purposes; to unite them not 
only under his sceptre but under the sway of 
grand and fine ideas, and Israel had then become 
a great kingdom. What he had done for his own 
generation he sought to do also now for the gen- 
eration to come; for he knew well that the glory 
of the nation would depend, not on broad fields 
and full granaries ; not on populous towns and 
cities ; not on the opulence of nobles or the com- 
fort of the people ; not on largely attended schools 
of learning ; not on a veteran army whose banners 
had ever led to victory. On the imagination of 
the thoughts of Israel's heart all depended. This 
alone gave the nation distinction. This alone 
would insure success and stability. 

The formation of public opinion awes us as we 
behold it. When we see a great idea beginning to 
take possession of the minds of men ; the idea of 
emancipation in the hearts of the oppressed ; the 
idea of order and union to the disunited ; the idea 



50 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

of justice and righteousness, where greed ancl 
fraud have ruled; the idea of reform where evils 
are recognized; the idea of devoting a nation's 
power to the deliverance and development of 
those downtrodden and dwarfed; the mind is 
thrilled at the forces which are slowly taking 
shape to such tremendous effect. Before our eyes 
public opinion is forming irresistible in its move- 
ment, massiveness and endurance. To trace and 
point out such facts is the province of the luV 
tori an as distinguished from the mere retailer of 
anecdotes, or the chronicler of current events. To 
throw our energies into the creation and develop- 
ment of such a sentiment is the supreme service 
of every good citizen whose work is well directed 
and assured of permanent value. 

Therefore David uttered this wonderful prayer. 
For he well knew that this stupendous and indis- 
pensable achievement was beyond the power of 
man; though an absolute monarch like himself; 
though a king with all the gifts with which Solo- 
mon himself might possibly be endowed. No 
power but that of Almighty God could keep these 
great ideas in the hearts of the people ; in forms 
fixed and abiding and dominant. David at this 
culmination of a career so distinguished and so 
successful gathers up all the lessons of experience 
in that prayer ; the prayer of a father ; the prayer 
of a patriot; the prayer of the founder of a 
great kingdom which now was to pass out of his 
masterful hands. To the Almighty he turned; 
in Him alone he put his trust and hope. 



THE STUDIO OF THE SOUL 51 

The language he used was a quotation from 
the most ancient records of man; and it showed 
the anxieties and fears of his soul. Of those 
lived before the flood, he read as do we : "And God 
saw that the wickedness of man was great in the 
earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts 
of his heart was only evil continually." That re- 
curred to the king's mind. And he prayed to God 
that after him might not come the deluge; the 
judgment of the Lord on his son, on his people 
because they did not like to retain the Lord in 
their thoughts. He was fearing in them the state 
of mind which Paul with horror afterward saw in 
the nations of his time: "Becoming vain in their 
reasonings, their senseless heart was darkened. 
Professing themselves to be wise they became 
fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible 
God for the likeness of an image of corruptible 
man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts and 
creeping things." Such conditions David saw all 
around him. That his family and his people 
might be exempt was his supreme hope, which 
found its only real utterance, not in an appeal to 
them, but in an appeal for them and before them 
unto Jehovah by whom the heart is searched and 
by whom alone the heart is established. 



VIII 

THREE EPOCHS IN THE LIFE OF A 
YOUNG MAN 

Julius Caesar was found in tears after he had 
been reading the life of Alexander of Macedon, 
lamenting that though an older man he had yet 
done nothing to compare with the dazzling tri- 
umphs of that celebrated king. That career was 
indeed amazing in its rapid and early successes, 
and yet its stages of development were normal. 
At the age of fifteen, the prince was put in the 
care of Aristotle, the famous philosopher, and the 
mind is stirred at the thought of a pupil so gifted 
coming under the guidance of a teacher so great. 
At twenty Alexander became king on the death of 
his father, and at the age of twenty-six he con- 
quered Persia and was the Master of Asia. 

At the age of fifteen or sixteen we enter upon 
the period of life called adolescence. The youth 
is an object then of anxiety, and even of despair 
sometimes, to parents and teachers. The mind is 
astir with new interests, ambitions and desires; 
one is at once wilful and weak; rapid and incon- 
gruous changes and choices exhibit themselves; 
authority is flouted and experience challenged; 
definite principles are not established, and the 
outcome of all is anxiously awaited by those who 
have the welfare of a youth most at heart. Pa- 

52 



THREE EPOCHS IN LIFE 53 

rents and teachers often feel then that they need 
all the authority and influence of an Aristotle, 
the patience of Job, and the love that hopeth all 
things to deal with a young person under their 
charge. Through this mysterious and critical 
period each one has to go as best he may. 

At twenty-one we determine that a person 
comes of age, as we say. We are agreed that he is 
then old enough to inherit property, make con- 
tracts and exercise the right of a voter. Charac- 
ter has taken a certain fixedness by that time, 
after the tumultuousness and uncertainty of ado- 
lescence. The young king comes to the throne of 
responsibility, and he begins to show what is in 
him, as did Luther when he put aside the allure- 
ments of ambition to become a monk, and began 
to form convictions which his after career exem- 
plified. Lincoln at the age of twenty-one was in 
New Orleans, and witnessed there some of the in- 
iquities and cruelties of slavery. We are told that 
he then and there registered a vow to smite sla- 
very hard if the opportunity were ever his, and 
though the story may not be true, it well enough 
illustrates how some of our distinctive and lasting 
traits begin to manifest themselves at this age. 

At about twenty-six we usually reach another 
marked epoch. Then the physical frame attains 
maturity; then the previous generation affords 
opportunity for us to assert ourselves, and take 
up the work of the world in a more personal and 
responsible way. New home ties are commonly 



54 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

formed by this time, or arranged. The profes- 
sional man at this age has as a rule completed 
his education and is ready for his special work. 
How often makers of wills delay the distribution 
of their property till their heirs reach their 
twenty-fifth year. The United States Constitu- 
tion prescribes that one may be elected to mem- 
bership in the House of Representatives when he 
reaches the age of twenty-five, and Russia makes 
this to be the period when one comes of age. 

Cicero was twenty-six when he began his career 
as a lawyer and a public man, and the same was 
true of Lincoln and Gladstone. At this age Na- 
poleon commanded the troops which crushed revo- 
lution in Paris, and thus came prominently into 
notice, while Wellington was twenty-six when he 
first held independent military command. At this 
age William the Silent formed his resolve at Vin- 
cennes to save his imperilled people, and Wash- 
ington had reached this time of life when elected 
to the Virginia Legislature and so entered upon 
public life. Milton was twenty-six when he wrote 
"Comus" and became noted as an author, and at 
this age Calvin wrote the Institutes which have 
given him fame, while Mendelssohn, Handel, 
Hayden, and Beethoven were about twenty-six 
when they came into prominence as musicians. 

Practically it is found that in each person's ex- 
perience these three epochs at about this period 
are marked, and when we read biographies the 
same fact challenges our attention almost unvary- 



THREE EPOCHS IN LIFE 55 

ingly. In our own development we are to watch 
ourselves at these critical epochs with keenness 
that we make the most of new aptitudes and op- 
portunities which then are manifested, while in 
our attempts to help others we are to be watchful 
of the right use of influence at these critical 
points in their career. 

The Bible has one biography which brings out 
the self-same fact, showing how religion makes 
its appeal to the human heart at these epochs in 
life. Josiah, the King of Judah, is the only per- 
son named in Scripture, where the critical mo- 
ments in his career are thus chronologically 
marked, and the record is worthy of our close at- 
tention. 

He was sixteen, "while he was yet young, when 
he began to seek the Lord." In this period of 
adolescence the mind and heart are susceptible pe- 
culiarly to religious impressions, as to others. 
Then the appeal of religion may be made with 
most confidence and most success. The soul is 
awaking with the other powers of the nature, and 
it is wonderfully receptive. The vast majority of 
persons date their serious interest in religion to 
this period in their lives, and with all prayers for 
wisdom and grace parents and teachers are to 
endeavor to lead youth at this time "to seek the 
Lord." All that has been said and done before 
this is preparatory. Then may we hope to see re- 
ligion assert and enthrone itself in the heart. 

Josiah was twenty-one when a new stage in his 



56 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

career was marked, and is noted in this remark- 
able biography. Then "he began to purge Judah 
and Jerusalem from the high places, and the 
Asherim and the graven images, and the molten 
images." The result of his seeking the Lord is 
now shown in the resolute, and courageous work 
of a reformer. Errors and evils were clearly seen 
and kingliness of spirit was shown in the de- 
termination to do away with them. This is the 
age when the new generation begins to show its 
impatience with evils which the preceding genera- 
tion had become tolerant of, or felt unable to 
grapple with and do away. To young people at 
this time reform in all its aspects appeals with 
great power, and they are ready to unite and un- 
dertake crusades. The rubbish of the ages they 
would clear away. What ought not to be, they 
are prepared to say shall not be. How much the 
world owes to this splendid enthusiasm and pur- 
pose of the king, when he comes of age. 

At twenty-six, when Josiah "had purged the 
land, and the house," he sent the great officials of 
the city and realm "to repair the house of the 
Lord his God." Now he enters upon the construc- 
tive period of his life. The rubbish of idolatry 
he had, during those years, resolutely removed. 
Now he devoted his royal energies to the repair 
and renovation of the Temple, and to building 
up the true religion among his people. The royal 
reformer now becomes a royal builder and this is 
the normal development of the religious life. 



THREE EPOCHS IN LIFE 57 

Young men and young women at this period 
ought to be found actively engaged in building 
up the cause and kingdom of the Lord ; throwing 
into this work all the enthusiasm and energies of 
their nature, eagerly utilizing opportunities open 
to them, and guided by a wisdom which is the 
fruit of experience and meditation in their ma- 
turing years. 

The historians of the world dwell upon the 
story of Alexander of Macedon, and they pay lit- 
tle heed to the short record of this Jewish King. 
But judged aright Josiah is a more human reality 
to us ; nearer to each one of us in the deep experi- 
ences of life. Alexander we may admire, but this 
man, monarch though he was, is as one of us in 
the privileges of a common career. His search for 
truth ; his abhorrence of error ; his devotion to the 
right, these are within the reach of all of us, the 
best characteristics of each of us, and' these alone 
give meaning, dignity and coherence to any life. 
The Bible makes no mention of the Macedonian 
conqueror, but the story of this King of Judah 
it preserves, and his name and fame shall be 
known among men wherever the Scriptures go. 
"The Word of the Lord endureth forever," and 
those who seek and serve the Lord shall be held 
in lasting remembrance. 



IX 
THE TOWN CLERK'S TRIBUTE. 

In the ancient city of Ephesus there was an 
official who may perhaps be well enough desig- 
nated by the title of town clerk. He seems to 
have been a personage of much influence and dig- 
nity whose functions would often bring him into 
public notice. Certain Jews on one occasion had 
come to the city and after a time a maddened 
mob gathered, and finally rushed to the great 
amphitheatre as the only place where a public as- 
semblage of such size could be held, and there 
passionately demanded the severe punishment of 
these men who were charged with acts and words 
derogatory to the honor of Diana, the city's pat- 
ron goddess. 

After the clamor ceased this Ephesian official 
appeared before the people, and when silence en- 
sued he made a remarkable speech which had note- 
worthy effect. In the first place he pointed out 
that the accused men were not robbers of temples. 
Now the Temple of Diana in Ephesus was one of 
the most splendid buildings in the world. It was 
not only enriched by magnificent and costly ap- 
pointments and decorations, but by reason of its 
peculiar sanctity it was made a place of safe de- 
posit for money and valuables. Great tempta- 
tions to robbery, therefore, were presented, and an 

58 



THE TOWN CLERK'S TRIBUTE 59 

inscribed marble found among the ruins of Ephe- 
sus shows the peculiar detestation of such a crime 
in the view of the people. Paul and his associ- 
ates could not be charged with such sacrilege. 

Furthermore he declared that no one could 
charge them with blasphemy of their goddess. 
They had never said or done anything to cast 
ridicule or bring contempt upon the great Diana 
of the Ephesians. And not a man in that excited 
throng could utter one word in challenge of the 
assertions thus publicly made by this calm, judi- 
cious and authoritative official. 

From such a man and under such circumstances 
that opinion respecting those Christians is most 
illuminating. He respected them for zeal with- 
out fanaticism; for earnestness and enthusiasm 
united to saving common sense. And that fact is 
somewhat remarkable. 

For Paul was an intelligent man and an earn- 
est Jew, and we know full well how he felt about 
Diana and her sanctuary ; that splendid structure 
enshrining a rude, misshapen wooden image. All 
that the prophets had said ridiculing and de- 
nouncing such idolatry he well knew and heartily 
sympathized with. The folly and debasement of 
it all he deeply felt. Yet no one had ever known 
him to show this by any word or act. He was 
guiltless of sacrilege all must allow. 

Moreover, Paul was not an ordinary traveller, 
who had come to Ephesus to see the people and 
edifices of that famous city. He came there with 



60 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

a great and consuming purpose : of which he never 
lost sight, and which he had prosecuted night and 
day for months. But his zeal had never outrun 
discretion; he had never awakened prejudices nor 
aroused the passions of men. 

So it was in Athens. When he visited it he 
found a city wholly given over to idolatry, and 
as the narrative says his- spirit was provoked 
within him. But the stirring of his soul was 
never shown by unwise and unmeasured words or 
acts. We are told that he reasoned daily with any 
one and every one he met in places of public re- 
sort, but it was done with courtesy, dignity and 
self-restraint. Attention was excited but antag- 
onism was not aroused. And finally with great 
courtesy he was invited publicly to address the 
Athenians whose respect he had won by his cul- 
tivated, courteous bearing, and though that ad- 
dress was delivered close to the great Temple and 
statue of Minerva he said not a word assailing the 
beliefs of those whom he addressed. 

Paul was a radical, in thorough sympathy with 
the procedure announced by John the Baptist, 
"the axe is laid at the root of the trees." But 
how wise he was. He saw that the worship of 
Diana at Ephesus was a religion of a kind; not 
the true religion at all, but it really witnessed to 
the religious instincts and nature of men. So far 
it was his standing ground. If there were no re- 
ligion of any kind at Ephesus Paul might despair 
of finding anything in the heart of the people to 



THE TOWN CLERK'S TRIBUTE 61 

which he could appeal. He took them as he found 
them and then patiently, wisely, lovingly sought 
to lead them to see the truth in its fulness and 
beauty. He did not abuse Diana worship ; he used 
it. He appealed to the deep instincts and needs 
of the soul, and when these were roused he knew 
that men would turn to the broad, deep, real 
truth of the Gospel. 

The words then of this Ephesian official are the 
world's stamp of approval on a sane religion 
which is all aglow with quenchless zeal, but which 
observes the proprieties of time and place; raises 
no barriers by the very fierceness of its energy; 
exhibits ever the love that endureth all things, 
hopeth all things, and never faileth; and which 
wins the favor not only of kindred minds "but of 
these that are without," as Paul once said. Thus 
he becomes the pattern for every religious 
teacher, whatever his sphere and station. He is 
the pattern, as well, of every really effective and 
useful reformer, whether moral, social or political. 
Paul stood like a rock when forced openly to take 
a stand. If there had to be a fight he was in the 
forefront and he never left the field. But he 
never forced a fight. He was a man of peace 
who never knew fear. He was a man of flaming 
zeal, but not a fire-brand. 

In the Life of Henry M. Stanley, we are told 
of his hope and indeed expectation that his body 
should be laid in Westminster Abbey beside that 
of David Livingstone whom he had sought and 



62 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

found in Africa. The funeral was held in that 
historic building, but interment there was denied. 
Men instinctively feel that the restless, energetic, 
fiery Stanley was of distinctly lower grade of 
spirit, than Livingstone, of whom he reverently 
and lovingly wrote: 

" He preached no sermon, by word of mouth while 
I was in company with him; but each day of my 
companionship with him witnessed a sermon acted. 
The Divine instructions, given of old on the Sacred 
Mount, were closely followed, day by day, whether 
we rested in the jungle-camp, or bided in the trad- 
er's town, or savage hamlet. Lowly of spirit, meek 
in speech, merciful of heart, pure in mind, and 
peaceful in act, suspected by the Arabs to be an in- 
former, and therefore calumniated, often offended at 
evils committed by his own servants, but ever for- 
giving, often robbed and thwarted, yet bearing no 
ill-will, cursed by the marauders, yet physicking 
their infirmities, most despitefully used, yet pray- 
ing daily for all manner and condition of men! 
Narrow, indeed, was the way of eternal life that he 
elected to follow, and few are those who choose it." 

Livingstone, as Stanley knew him and por- 
trayed him, was an embodiment and illustration of 
the spirit Paul showed in Athens and Ephesus, 
and which won the respect and esteem of the hea- 
then themselves, whom he sought to convert and 
Christianize. That is the spirit and the method 
of all who would transform and uplift men, and 
whose work abides. 

In his account of John Hampden, Macaulay 



THE TOWN CLERK'S TRIBUTE 6S 

quotes the account of this great English states- 
man, as given by his strong opponent, Lord Clar- 
endon : 

" He was of that rare affability and temper in de- 
bate, and of that seeming humility and submission of 
judgment, as if he brought no opinion of his own 
with him, but a desire of information and instruc- 
tion. Yet he had so subtle a way of interrogating, 
and, under cover of doubts, insinuating his objec- 
tions, that he infused his own opinions into those 
from whom he pretended to learn and receive them." 

And the essayist ends by saying how "England 
missed that sobriety, that self-command, that per- 
fect soundness of judgment, that perfect recti- 
tude of intention, to which the history of revolu- 
tions furnishes no parallel, or furnishes a paral- 
lel in Washington alone." 

Macaulay would not have ended the paragraph 
were he writing now, without placing a garland 
upon the brow of another great American, whose 
true stature we are at last coming as a nation to 
realize. Lincoln loathed the evils of slavery as 
much as the most fiery Abolitionist; he loved the 
Union with a passionate fervor ; and placed at the 
nation's head when every energy must be shown 
in a struggle to save that Union, he displayed a 
tenacity and dauntlessness of purpose rivalling 
the bravest of soldiers. We marvel now at the 
eloquence which roused and nerved men's souls; 
at the wisdom which restrained the over-zealous 
and unwise; at the love which held out the olive 



64 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

branch to the very close of his days, toward the 
misguided ones who wildly sought to tear to tat- 
ters the nation's flag, and whom he resisted with 
every force at his command. 

These men exhibited statesmanship of the high- 
est order; leadership sane and successful; quali- 
ties of character of the rarest and finest type ; the 
very traits which the Ephesian official recognized 
and emphasized in the words and work of Paul 
and his associates in Ephesus, and to which, hea- 
then as he was, he bore publicly his testimony. 



THE COMMONWEALTH IDEA 

The colonists on the Mayflower just before 
they landed at Plymouth, drew up and signed the 
famous compact "covenanting and combining 
themselves into civic body politic," which should 
enact such measures as should be for "the general 
good of the colony." A hundred and fifty years 
afterward the descendants of these colonists and 
their associates banded themselves into a confed- 
eration for the preservation and protection of 
their rights and mutual interests. Four score 
years thereafter, as Lincoln said, the citizens of 
this great nation engaged in a struggle, the aim 
and outcome of which was to preserve the Union, 
and government by the people for the general 
good. So that the great idea in the minds of the 
Pilgrims has been dominant in the minds of our 
people in all the great epochs of their national 
history. 

The famous "general welfare" provision in the 
constitution of the United States is relied upon as 
giving authority to the general government to en- 
act and execute laws which shall promote the best 
interests of all the people. And our courts in de- 
ciding questions that come before them emphasize 
"public policy" as a principle of justice which 
must be invoked to establish justice as between in- 

65 



66 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

dividuals, corporations and classes of our citizens. 
This at basis is the commonwealth idea. 

Among the throngs who attended upon the 
ministry of John the Baptist were some Roman 
soldiers, stern, mail-clad men, the representatives 
of those warriors who had won and retained im- 
perial power among men for Rome. These were 
roused to ask the great preacher what their duty 
was, and he answered: "Do violence to no man, 
neither exact anything wrongfully; and be con- 
tent with your wages." These men were tempted 
to use their power for their personal advantage. 
John reminded them that they were to maintain 
government; that they were to be just themselves 
toward all with whom they had to do. 

Today we are confronted with the clashing be- 
tween capital and labor. This meets us at every 
turn. The wage payer and the wage earner are 
in a state of unrest and frequent discord, and an 
adjustment of these relations is seen to be impera- 
tively necessary for the peace and welfare of so- 
ciety. Those words of John may well be pon- 
dered, and the right application of them sought 
by the people of today. The abuse of power by 
men of wealth, shrewd, strong and combined cap- 
tains of industry and magnates in the business 
world, amounts to the same wrongful exaction of 
which those Roman soldiers were often guilty. It 
is perfectly plain that the representatives of the 
people in legislature and congress are determined 
to find a way to end all this, and that the way will 



THE COMMONWEALTH IDEA 67 

be found. On the other hand the failure of em- 
ployees to take due care of the interests of their 
employer; the imperative and sometimes unrea- 
sonable demands they make; their tyrannical 
treatment of worthy associates who may not join 
their unions ; their discontent with wages prompt- 
ing demands unseasonably urged; all these 
amount to wrongful exactions for which a remedy 
must be found if the relations of labor and capital 
are to be mutually satisfactory and helpful. 

What was really involved then in these words 
of John has been elaborately stated by the late 
Carroll D. Wright, United States Commissioner 
of Labor, and his language needs frequently to be 
recalled, since this obviously expresses the mature 
convictions of one who had broadly and deeply 
studied the subject. 

After saying that the making of character by 
statutory enactment ; the benefit of improved sani- 
tary conditions ; the lessening of the hours of la- 
bor; action by arbitration boards had all proved 
beneficial but had failed to touch the root of the 
matter, he concludes that "in religion we find the 
highest form of solution yet offered." 

Religion sets up a court of arbitration in a 
man's own heart. It bids him to remember the 
general good of the community in which he lives ; 
to fit himself to render to that community some 
real service ; thoroughly to equip himself therefor, 
and patiently, faithfully to engage therein ; never 
content with his workmanship, but ever striving 



68 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

to make it more perfect; considering himself as 
one of the indispensable factors in the social state 
and striving to fulfill his functions with all dili- 
gence, fidelity and honor. Whenever you find 
a man of that spirit you find a good citizen, for 
whom society has a place, and in the degree that 
such a spirit characterizes a people will there be 
a true commonwealth. 

Bismarck said that the characteristic of modern 
civilization is the assertion of the race spirit. He 
saw that particularly in the union of the Ger- 
manic peoples into one German Empire, and his 
life work was the development of that idea among 
his own people. So too we now have a united 
Italian nation, the cordiality between the Anglo- 
Saxon peoples, while we watch with deepest in- 
terest the national advance of Japan, and the 
arousement of the Slavic race, the Chinese and 
the people of India. 

It is becoming plain that the commonwealth 
idea is to take possession of men not only in local 
and national but also in international relations, 
and the mind is staggered at the many and com- 
plex problems this presents, and awed as it looks 
forward to the amazing results that will surely 
follow as men slowly and steadily work out these 
problems in the centuries to come. 

Today the English people are dealing with the 
question how far the hereditary principle shall be 
allowed to have influence in the government of 
Great Britain. Of course with the history of the 



THE COMMONWEALTH IDEA 69 

English people in mind we know how that ques- 
tion will ultimately be decided. The people will 
rule. The day of the privileged classes is hasten- 
ing to its close. 

We remember the struggles that have taken 
place on British soil between Britons and Romans, 
Britons and Danes, Britons and Normans ; be- 
tween Englishmen and Irishmen, Welshmen, 
Scotchmen; between Englishmen themselves, and 
we see how slowly there has come as the result of 
these centuries of conflict, in which our fore- 
fathers engaged, a government of the people, by 
the people and for the people, and in the re- 
sults of these we also share. And that history 
is typical of what has been and is going on within 
nations and between nations. The commonwealth 
idea is the key to human history and the inter- 
pretation of the future of the race. 

A year after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth 
another company of Colonists came, among whom 
was Robert Cushman, a clergyman, and he 
preached there a sermon which was the first ser- 
mon ever printed in New England. That fact 
may show the honor in which the speaker was held 
and the importance recognized in the views he 
presented. His text was: "Let no man seek his 
own, but every man another's wealth." This 
scholarly and intelligent man saw that the idea to 
which Paul thus gave expression, must be su- 
preme in the minds of the people if this new 
community should have prosperity and perma- 



70 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

nence. With all his energy he sought to impress 
that upon every one. 

To us the sermon was prophetic. The truth it 
set forth had been embodied in the compact the 
Pilgrims signed, and it has been the real and vital 
principle in every great epoch in the history of 
the nation then begun; it must be kept in full 
view in every appeal made to our people when the 
rights of individuals and classes are to be ad- 
justed ; and it will be found to be the last word in 
the Parliament of the World when the rights and 
interests of nations are to be determined. 

This is not a counsel of perfection, the dream 
of a philosopher, or the Utopian fancy of an en- 
thusiast. Christianity, which finds its utterance 
in Paul's word, has power to transform men; to 
make the sense of justice supreme in his soul; to 
conquer his passions, his selfishness, his preju- 
dices and his pride; and to make him see and 
know, that as in the human body efficiency and 
welfare depend upon the healthful activity of 
each member thereof, so in the body politic the 
commonwealth idea must take possession of each 
individual and in the resultant general good the 
personal welfare is secured. The Gospel is the 
only power known among men which can take up 
this tremendous problem which confronts the mod- 
ern world and solve it with ease and finality, 
making real man's highest ideal in the social 
state. 



XI 
VICTORY OVER VICISSITUDES 

Certain characters fascinate us. Uncon- 
sciously, perhaps, but instinctively, we watch 
them, treasure what they say and do, and talk 
about them. Such a character was David, King 
of Israel, and we do not wonder that three proph- 
ets, Samuel, Nathan and Gad felt moved to write 
the story of his life and times. 

It was an extraordinary career. The shepherd 
lad summoned from the field to meet the venerated 
Prophet, Samuel, was anointed as God's chosen 
one to wear the crown. Shortly afterward David 
reappears as the champion of Israel when defied 
and dismayed by the Philistine giant, and his vic- 
tory made him the darling of the court and na- 
tion. The shepherd lad of Bethlehem became the 
bosom friend of the Crown Prince; the King's 
son-in-law, a popular officer in the royal army. 
Almost in an instant the scene changes, and David 
was an outlaw, with a price set on his head by the 
embittered king. Ere long he returns to Israel, 
first as king in Hebron, then in Jerusalem, the 
monarch whom a proud and powerful nation 
recognize as their wise and great sovereign. From 
the pinnacle of prosperity and power David sud- 
denly fell into crime of deepest dye, and as a 
sequel the aged monarch fled from his capital in 

71 



72 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

shame and tears, hunted by the servants of his 
own pampered son. The story ends with the pic- 
ture of a sovereign restored to his throne, to which 
he welcomes his son and successor of whose char- 
acter and abilities the aged man was justly proud. 

No wonder these eminent men of David's na- 
tion were deeply interested in this character and 
this career, and felt that the worthy account of 
it was a theme worthy of their highest powers. 
Homer devoted his great gifts to the story of the 
life of Ulysses, keenly realizing with the insight 
of a trained literary mind and his profound 
knowledge of human nature that such a story 
would have broad and lasting interest. The 
great historians and story tellers of the world 
have the self -same gift of insight and expression. 
The art of the novelist consists in inventing 
characters and then leading them through im- 
aginary vicissitudes of experience, bringing out 
their character under such varying conditions. 

Longfellow speaks of the old clock on the stair, 
and makes it the witness and the chronicle of 
vicissitudes in the home where it has so long stood. 
Merriment and mourning; joy and disappoint- 
ment; success and failure; bridals and funerals, 
all these in succession that old time-piece has 
known. That poem appeals straight to the hearts 
of men, for experience brings out its deep truth. 
The palace and the humblest home alike know 
such visitations. And we note how aptly the 
flight of time in the poem is associated with such 



VICTORY OVER VICISSITUDES 73 

changes, realizing how this thought has taken 
possession of men's minds. Thus in the record of 
David's life all was summed up in the very last 
line with the expression: "the times that went 
over him." 

We recall the striking words of the Psalmist: 
"all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me," 
and that psalm was written in a time of sore dis- 
tress and trouble, when the heart was over- 
whelmed. As the heading of many chapters in 
the record of each life those words might fitly 
stand. Even more pertinently perhaps might we 
remember another familiar utterance: "And I 
said, oh that I had wings like a dove ! then would 
I fly away and be at rest." In the one case we 
have the picture of a person submerged by the 
oncoming waves of trouble. In the other we 
think of him held fast and powerless to get away 
from his trial. 

And this latter idea has peculiar significance. 
We speak sometimes of our ties in life; our re- 
sponsibilities of home and service ; the necessity of 
abiding in some locality where loved ones are as- 
sociated with us and where our vocation is. To 
that spot, to that home, to that circle we are tied. 
No doubt great happiness and advantages come 
to us as a consequence. We never can do our 
best nor get our best unless fixed somewhere, so 
that we can employ our faculties steadily, make 
our influence continually felt, and enjoy uninter- 
ruptedly the blessings of companionship with 
those who are tried and true. 



74 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

But this very fixedness has another aspect. 
Our ties tie us down. The times come when, as 
the Psalmist says, we long to fly away from it 
all; from the irritations, the anxieties, the bur- 
dens, the battling of our daily experience. And 
this perhaps leads us to understand the deeper 
meaning of that remarkable phrase: "the times 
that went over him." 

For it brings out grandly the heroic quality of 
the man, who could not get away from life's 
harassings and battles; who was forced to stay, 
and who turned his troubles into triumphs of faith 
and patience, and transformed defeats as they 
seemed into real victories. In our earlier days we 
revel in the sense of power, and unto power we 
give the tribute of our heartiest praise. Longer 
and richer experience attests the need of endur- 
ance, patience, and we come to see that the victory 
of patience is as great as any ever won by man. 
Our eyes are at last opened to discern the ripened 
fruit of character in those who calmly, patiently 
endure life, where it holds them, making the 
most of all they have, serenely refusing to be cast 
down or embittered by denial, disappointment and 
grief. 

That was David the King, as the Seers of 
Israel discerned the grandeur of his soul. Such 
too was Alfred the Great, King of England, that 
truly royal man, of feeble frame, amid a people 
uncultured and rude, in a time when the heathen 
hordes swept the land with fire and pitiless sword, 



VICTORY OVER VICISSITUDES 75 

but who stood like a mighty oak defying the 
blasts that smote it. 

And this kingliness is apparent in humble lives 
as well. Years ago an English lad, twelve years 
old, was assisting his father who was a bricklayer. 
While stepping from a ladder to a high roof the 
boy missed his footing and fell heavily on the 
paved court below. They picked him up, limp and 
lifeless as it seemed, but he revived and in time 
was strong again, but the accident left him en- 
tirely deaf. After a time he was apprenticed to 
a shoemaker, and at the bench the boy worked 
from six in the morning till ten at night. But 
the lad found time to read every book he could 
lay hands on. A benevolent man helped him to an 
education and in the end he became a person of 
great learning and abilities. That English lad 
in his humble way was as noble as Alfred, the 
English King. 

Bunyan tells us in "Pilgrim's Progress" of the 
conflict with Apollyon. He describes the strug- 
gle and tells of the Christian finally flung to the 
ground, and losing his sword as he fell. The ad- 
versary rejoiced at assured victory and was just 
raising his hand to strike the fatal blow, when 
the man of faith suddenly seized his weapon again 
and cried out in the words of Scripture: "When 
I fall, I shall arise." And from defeat the be- 
liever snatched a decisive victory. 

Sometimes we speak of "the ups and downs of 
life." These words in that order are not true of 



76 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

the Christian life, for respecting it we properly 
say, "the downs and ups of life." The Holy 
Scriptures are full of that. At the opening of 
the Bible we may read of Paradise Lost, but at 
the end we read of Paradise Regained. Most im- 
pressive is it to note how the books of the Bible 
always end with the word of hope, assurance, 
consolation. The Book of Job is typical. 
Through long chapters it tells us of human mis- 
ery and sorrow, but at the end we behold the 
faithful soul crowned with joy and blessing. 

The Book of Ecclesiastes reflects the operations 
of the mind of man perplexed by the sorrows, un- 
certainties, disappointments of life. The mind is 
seen oscillating between doubt and hope, pessi- 
mism and optimism, but at the end comes the clear 
and confident word. Certainty is attained ; a con- 
clusion is reached, a philosophy of existence is 
found, and this doubting, questioning one is 
standing, not on shifting sands of mood and opin- 
ion, but on the eternal rock. 

David was "the man after God's own heart" we 
are explicitly told. We study that wonderful 
career, and we see that in his strength and his 
weakness ; in his successes and his failures ; in his 
coronations and his degradations ; with fingers 
that could bend the bow and anon sweep the harp 
string masterfully; this man essentially was as 
one of us. The times that went over him were 
like the times that go over us also. And we gaze 
upon the sunset hour of that strenuous life, and 



VICTORY OVER VICISSITUDES 77 

behold how the deepest desires of his heart were 
graciously fulfilled. 

Tennyson speaks of rising "on stepping stones 
of our dead selves to higher things." His 
thought was based perhaps on Goethe's words: 
"from changes unto higher changes." The same 
underlying idea is voiced in the summons for the 
soul "to build statelier mansions for itself," and 
much of the noblest literature is but an expression 
of this aspiration and an arousing to its realiza- 
tion. 



XII 
THE SOUL'S SILENCE UNTO GOD 

We declare our belief, in repeating the Apos- 
tles' Creed, that Jesus has ascended into heaven, 
and now sitteth on the right hand of God the 
Father Almighty. The language recalls the 
words recorded by the Psalmist-Seer, when, after 
his gaze into the throne-room of eternity, he says 
he heard the Lord say to his Lord: "Sit thou at 
my right hand until I make thine enemies thy 
footstool." The Psalm confessedly refers to the 
Messiah, and we have here the sublime picture of 
His quiet waiting, while Christianity goes on 
conquering and to conquer until the glories of the 
consummation assured. 

So Isaiah chronicles a message which came to 
him. "The Lord said unto me, I will be still, and 
I will behold in my dwelling place ; like clear heat 
in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of har- 
vest." The prophet realized what he would have 
us also realize betimes, God's quiet, assured wait- 
ing, while the agencies he had set in operation, 
and which were the manifestation of Himself, 
calmly wrought out the vast and gracious results 
which He had determined. 

The prophet Zephaniah has a splendid passage 
in which he promises: "The Lord thy God is in 
the midst of thee, a mighty one who will save ; he 

78 



THE SOUL'S SILENCE 79 

will rejoice over thee, he will be silent in his love, 
he will joy over thee with singing." We pause 
over that unique expression : "he will be silent in 
his love." It reveals a depth in God's love for 
us in a marvellous way. For love at its deepest is 
beyond expression by word or deed even. Be- 
yond all we say there is more we cannot say. Be- 
yond all we can do there is an affection which 
cannot find manifestation. And what we know of 
ourselves, this man of God with a bold and won- 
derful allusion, declares of the Father Himself. 
Even He cannot tell us, cannot show us, how dear 
we are to Him. 

In similar way our deepest devotion unto God 
is beyond words or acts of expression. The Psalm- 
ist brings this out when he says: "My soul is si- 
lent unto God." There is no appeal that goes so 
direct to our hearts, that so haunts us, that so 
surely gives us no rest till we have acted with 
promptitude and effect, as the appeal from pa- 
tient, trusting, wistful eyes. Importunate re- 
quests we may delay dealing with. Such an ap- 
peal as that moves us profoundly. Thus this man 
of faith was sure it was with God. The soul's si- 
lence as one looks to Him and patiently awaits 
His help and blessing is represented as prayer in 
its most touching manifestation. It means per- 
fect trust in Him ; not only in His power and wis- 
dom and compassion, but in his full understand- 
ing and interest. He has not forgotten, and will 
not forget. We are silent in the knowledge of 



80 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

this, and we have but to quietly watch the way in 
which relief and blessing shall come. We do not 
like to be importuned or reminded frequently, as 
though we had forgotten or were likely to for- 
get. Neither does God. Never do we honor Him 
more than in the silent trust that He knows and 
will act at the right time and in the right way. 

Charles Wesley composed a hymn based on 
Jacob's wrestling with God in prayer, and this 
has been called "the most celebrated lyric that he 
ever wrote." The transition from Jacob "the sup- 
planter;" the shrewd, pushing, dexterous man of 
the world, unto Israel, "the Prince of God," is 
marked by the lines: 

" My prayer hath power with God ; the grace 
Unspeakable I now receive; 
Through faith I see thee face to face — 
I see thee face to face and live. 
In vain I have nor wept and strove; 
Thy nature and thy name is Love." 

The elevated and serene spirit of the patriarch, 
who so impressed the Egyptian King and his 
court ; who was reverenced so profoundly by those 
strong men his sons ; and to whom was granted 
such marvellous visions of the future of his de- 
scendants ; that was the ripe faith which in its im- 
mature manifestations we perceive in its struggle 
at Bethel, in the far East where he sojourned, and 
in the midnight wrestling in prayer at the 
Jabbok. 



THE SOUL'S SILENCE 81 

Tennyson in one famous line has sketched 
Mary of Bethany when he wrote: "her eyes are 
homes of silent prayer." That reveals to us the 
depth and beauty of this woman's nature, who sat 
at Jesus' feet, eagerly gazing into his face, drink- 
ing in his teachings,, only to rise and swiftly, 
surely, silently do the essential and the great 
thing, at which men could only marvel, in its 
genius and its completeness. She is the type of 
those silent souls, the mainspring and the main- 
stay of homes, and communities; who silently 
ponder and resolve, promptly and steadfastly act, 
with zeal afire but not aflame. 

The Psalmist wrote this word in troublous 
times. In silent trust he thought of God as "his 
rock and his salvation." Twice he declares this in 
the short psalm quoted, and we think of him in 
that calm assurance of faith, facing difficulties 
and dangers which might appal. The serenity of 
strength is impressive, as those old Egyptian 
architects and sculptors have shown it marvel- 
lously, in the stately calm of the Pyramids, in 
which man has most closely imitated in his works 
the grand quiet of the everlasting hills, and in 
the majestic repose of their statues, which repre- 
sent the King, with hands resting on his knees, 
and gazing out upon a world which owns his un- 
questioned sovereignty. Thus this silent trust of 
the Lord in its majestic strength, as the Psalmist 
depicts it, becomes a power with the timid and the 
terrified, to whom the calm believer alone can say: 
"Trust in the Lord at all times." 



82 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

The telescope, through which we clearly behold 
and trace the stars, must not sway nor tremble. 
It must rest upon a foundation firm and secure. 
The great visions of truth come to us only in the 
silence of the soul. Not to Moses "mighty in 
words and deeds" in his hasty purpose to rescue 
his brethren; nor to him as the Shepherd and 
Lawgiver of Israel overburdened with the care of 
a turbulent and rebellious people ; but to the man 
of God in the sublime and final serenity of faith 
came the visions of Jehovah when there was re- 
vealed before his calm gaze the panorama of 
Israel's future, including shadows of sins, idola- 
tries, awful reverses and punishments at which 
his pious and patriotic spirit would once have been 
troubled and in agony, but which he now saw in 
the wide scope of God's eternal purpose and 
glory. By a natural transition we turn to the 
next picture given of him serene and wide-visioned 
as a dweller with God, when now with Elijah, 
like-spirited, though once so tumultuous in en- 
ergy and prostrated in despair he was with the 
Son of Man on the Mount of Transfiguration, 
considering that atoning death near at hand in 
Jerusalem, by faith in which the true Israel of 
God should be rescued from the servitude of sin 
and enter upon the inheritance of the saints in 
light. 



XIII 
THE CITY OF THREE DIMENSIONS 

Ecbatana was the capital of ancient Persia, 
and the city was circled by seven walls. The bat- 
tlement of the outermost was white, of the sec- 
ond black, of the third purple, of the next blue, 
of the succeeding orange, while the sixth battle- 
ment was silver, and the seventh golden. And 
within this girdling wall on an eminence stood the 
royal palace. This peculiar characteristic of this 
city has led one to suggest that it may give us 
some idea of the Celestial City of which the Bible 
speaks, seeing in "the foundations" mentioned, 
terraces like the successive stages of the hill on 
which Ecbatana stood, and in the progressively 
elevated walls of precious stones, splendors like 
those which confronted the traveller as he ap- 
proached the Persian Capital. 

We read these closing chapters of God's Reve- 
lation seeking to know where and what is the place 
to which the righteous go, and in which the re- 
unions of eternity occur. As we read we are per- 
plexed. Surely this is no description of heaven 
like that which might be given of an earthly city. 
We cannot form any clear and connected idea of 
it. We come to feel that this language is sugges- 
tive, not descriptive ; poetry and not prose. That 
there is an eternal abiding place of the redeemed 

83 



84 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

we may be sure ; and that it will be a Paradise we 
may be certain. The details are not made plain. 
And one of the expressions used to describe it 
renders that certain. "The length and the 
breadth and the height thereof are equal," we are 
told. "That the city lieth foursquare and the 
length is as large as the breadth," we can under- 
stand. An earthly city might be thus laid out. 
But no imaginable city ever had three equal di- 
mensions. 

This however like the other expressions met in 
this description, we take as illustrating a feature 
of the perfection which even John found it impos- 
sible to portray, or even picture to himself. But 
under forms of materials and measurement he 
thinks of Heaven as the perfect City of the Great 
King. Further, even he cannot go. 

The Book of Revelation utilizes, combines and 
illustrates the symbolisms and the statements of 
the Bible. We must study its references if we 
would feel the power of John's gathering up in 
one grand picture the marvels of previous record 
with which his mind was saturated. And that is 
specially illustrated in this sentence of descrip- 
tion by dimensions. 

To Moses in the Mount, God gave the pattern 
of the Tabernacle and its equipments for worship. 
The innermost apartment was to be known as the 
Most Holy Place, and it was to be ten cubits wide, 
ten cubits long, and ten cubits high. In dimen- 
sions therefore it was to be a perfect cube. In 



CITY OF THREE DIMENSIONS 85 

the Temple of Solomon these proportions were 
simply doubled, but still the length and breadth 
and height of the Most Holy Place were to be 
equal. Now John tells us that heaven, the Most 
Holy Place of the Universe is likewise to have 
three equal dimensions. In this innermost sanc- 
tuary of Israel Jehovah was thought to abide 
among his people, as in the Heavenly City he was 
portrayed as enthroned. By the perfection of di- 
mensions in either case the perfection of the in- 
dwelling God was indicated. 

Nearly a thousand years ago Archbishop Ans- 
elm of Canterbury sought to prove the existence 
of God because in the mind of man there is the 
idea of one, than whom no greater can be con- 
ceived. Since we have this idea of a perfect Be- 
ing, He must really exist, this philosopher ar- 
gued. Theologians of course have taken this up 
and discussed it, and whatever we may think of 
the force of his argument for the existence of 
God, the fact on which it rests can hardly be dis- 
puted. We have an idea of one who to us is a 
Perfect Being ; though that idea may be very im- 
perfect indeed. It prepares us for the revelation 
of the Infinite God, in the glories of his perfec- 
tion, and this language of John fits in with the 
deepest thoughts and convictions of the mind of 
man. 

The writings of this Apostle have been con- 
sidered to afford perhaps as many proofs of the 
doctrine of the Trinity as any other writer of 



86 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

Scripture. Men have felt that he declared clearly 
the existence, not only of the Father, but of Jesus, 
as distinct from the Father, yet equal to the 
Father in power and glory, a Being to whom not 
only honor but actual worship is due. And in his 
writings we read of the Holy Spirit, whom he re- 
fers to as it would seem as a Person ; distinct from 
the Father and the Son, and rightfully to be wor- 
shipped as are they. Concededly no writer of the 
Bible has more profound spiritual insight than 
John. He seems to have been peculiarly near the 
Master not only in spirit but in comprehension of 
the deepest truth, and these threefold references 
to the Divine Nature to be found abundantly in 
his writings have led to the conviction of his be- 
lief in a Triune God, whom we know and adore as 
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That 
sublime and ceaseless chorus of praise which John 
says he heard in heaven: "Holy, holy, holy Lord 
God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come," 
is echoed in our own prized hymn : 

" Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty; 
God in three Persons, Blessed Trinity." 

Perhaps the doctrine of the Trinity is the most 
profound and mysterious doctrine confronted by 
the intellect of man. Certainly the mind feels its 
finiteness speedily when it tries to grasp, and hold 
at once these stupendous conceptions of Deity. 
Yet in this very mystery those who do accept it 
realize their deepest and most sublime thought of 



CITY OF THREE DIMENSIONS 87 

the Infinite. Paul seems to recognize a three-fold 
nature in man when he speaks of the body, soul 
and spirit, making this the three-fold division of 
a perfect human being. John and other writers 
as well, seems to recognize a three-fold nature in 
God, finding here the evidence and manifestation 
of perfect Deity. And with this appropriately 
we think of the three-fold dimensions of the 
Heaven in which the Triune God dwells. 

Jehovah made his nature known to Moses in the 
words, which constitute the fundamental, oft- re- 
ferred to, and oft-quoted revelation of Himself 
in Scripture. "And the Lord passed by before 
him and proclaimed, The Lord, a God full of 
compassion and gracious, slow to anger and plen- 
teous in mercy ; keeping mercy for thousands, for- 
giving iniquity and transgression and sin; that 
will by no means clear the guilty ; visiting the in- 
iquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon 
the children's children, unto the third and to the 
fourth generation." Here the perfection of the 
divine nature is by the Lord Himself declared, in 
the revelation of Himself as a God of law and of 
mercy. 

In that Most Holy Place, which apparently 
John had in mind when he described here the Ce- 
lestial City, stood the Ark of the Covenant which 
was the visible emblem of Jehovah's presence 
among his people, and enshrined at the very cen- 
ter of the Sanctuary. 

In that Ark, divinely ordained and patterned 



88 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

reposed by divine direction the two tables of stone 
on which the law was engraved. Beside these was 
the golden pot of manna, that witnessed how 
God's goodness would come in earthly blessings 
to those who kept his law; and also the rod of 
Aaron that budded as authenticating the priest- 
hood whose function it was to keep that law 
clearly before the mind of the people. And when 
that law was promulgated by Jehovah, it is 
stated, that God spake these words "and added 
no more." There was nothing for even God to 
add. Duty to God, and duty to man was summed 
up in those statutes. 

A sceptical lawyer once took up the Decalogue 
and began to read it. As he read he became more 
interested, and his study of it became more pro- 
longed and profound. As the outcome he con- 
fessed his belief in God, for he declared that that 
code of conduct, unlike every other known, was 
absolutely perfect. This conclusion is reached by 
all who study that law and realize the fullness of 
its revelation of duty. We remember the Psalm- 
ist's words: "Thy law is perfect, converting the 
soul." The incident forcibly illustrates, what 
careful consideration of the ten commandments 
shows, the perfect nature of God as shown in His 
law. 

On that ark was "the mercy seat." But one 
man, the High Priest, was permitted to approach 
the unvailed Ark of the Covenant, and he could 
come but on one day in the year, the Day of 



CITY OF THREE DIMENSIONS 89 

Atonement, and even he could draw near only to 
sprinkle upon the mercy seat the blood of the sac- 
rificial victim slain in connection with the solemn 
services of that great day. In this service the 
Mercy of God toward penitent and believing sin- 
ners was made known; that compassion to which 
he had given such varied, emphatic and reiterated 
expression in the opening words of his revelation 
on Sinai to Moses. 

Thus, then, we see how the Most Holy Place 
was divinely constituted for the revelation of the 
infinite perfections of the Divine Nature with 
which all men are practically concerned, the God 
of law, and the God who can forgive those who 
break that law. That is the revelation of God 
which comes to us on Calvary, as we then discern 
the perfect and balanced truth which satisfies the 
reason and the heart; the Justice and the Mercy 
of the Almighty, made known in and by His Son, 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

The mind demands a Sovereign of the Universe 
whose will is law ; final and authoritative. As hu- 
man government rests upon law, so must the Di- 
vine Government. Science tells us of the laws of 
the human body, and of the human mind and of 
the material universe as well. In a realm of law 
man lives, moves and has his being. His happi- 
ness and success and very life depend upon his 
due observance of law as experience and wide 
scientific knowledge alike attest. A Gospel then 
which grasps this full situation ; lays hold on the 



90 WRITING ON THE CLOUDS 

intellect of man, and speaks with true authority, 
declares this reign of law, and proclaims happi- 
ness or misery to man according as he obeys or 
disobeys the Being who is the Author and the 
Personification and the Upholder of law. 

Equally does the heart cherish the hope that the 
God of law is a God of mercy, who can and will 
find a way, by which the disobedient and sinful, 
being penitent, can escape the full and final pen- 
alty of their wrong doing. When Jonathan Ed- 
wards was preaching on the text: "Their foot 
shall slide in due time;" and basing upon it his 
terrific presentation of the remorseless certainty 
of punishment for sin, one of his hearers in an 
agony as he felt the links of that argument clos- 
ing around him, arose and exclaimed: "Oh Mr. 
Edwards, is not God a God of mercy?" There 
the cry of the human heart was heard. A Perfect 
Being, such as we conceive God to be, must be 
gracious as well as just. These are the two at- 
tributes which must exist together in perfect har- 
mony in his nature, and thus He is made known 
to us in the Revelation of Himself which is auth- 
oritative, because uttered in His own words to 
Moses, and in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

This celestial city of three equal dimensions, 
which is pictured to us then as the abode of a Per- 
fect Being, whom we worship and adore is made 
known by the Apostle as the Heaven unto which 
God's children shall go. Language is burdened 
to express the blessedness which they shall there 



CITY OF THREE DIMENSIONS 91 

enjoy. The Apostle uses a succession of symbol- 
isms because a literal description could not be 
given by him nor to him. All the satisfactions 
and occupations and splendors we can think of 
are but mere suggestions of the reality which 
awaits the ransomed soul. The joys of God's re- 
deemed ones, as inspired writers before him had 
described them, in glowing words with which he 
was familiar, the Apostle gathers up and unites 
in one splendid composition, and he shows us a 
mystery. God's own, having "attained unto the 
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," 
are to be with Him, in that Most Holy Place of 
the universe where the Perfect One abides glorious 
forevermore; in that City whose conformation 
means perfection. Its length and breadth and 
height are equal. 

" The golden evening heightens in the west ; 
Soon, soon to faithful warriors cometh rest; 
Sweet is the calm of Paradise the blest. 
But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day; 
The Saints triumphant rise in bright array ; 
The King of Glory passes on this way, 
From earth's wide bounds, from ocean's farthest 

coast, 
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless 

host, 
Singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost, 
Alleluia ! " 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: March 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



One copy del. to Oat. Div. 



